ˈmock-bird
[f. mock n.1 + bird n.]
The American mocking-bird, Mimus polyglottus.
| 1649 Perf. Descr. Virginia (1837) 15 One Bird we call the Mock-bird; for he will imitate all other Birds Notes. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 51 ¶4 The Indian Fowl, called the Mock-Bird, who has no Note of his own. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) II. 337 The American Mock-bird. Ibid. 338 The mock-bird is ever surest to please when it is most itself. 1809 Campbell Gertr. Wyom. i. iii, From merry mock-bird's song. a 1854 C. A. Southey Poet. Wks. (1867) 13 The pretty mockbird with his borrowed notes Tells thee sweet truth. |
b. Applied to the Sedge-warbler and the Blackcap (cf. mocking-bird 2).
| 1831 G. Montagu's Ornith. Dict. 326 Mock Bird, a name applied to the Sedge Bird. 1894 Newton Dict. Birds 582. |
c. fig.
| 1800 Southey Let. to Coleridge 8 Jan., Moses will be a very mock-bird as to languages. 1823 Byron Island ii. xiii, Sweep these mere mock-birds of the despot's song From the tall bough where they have perch'd so long. |