ˈfire-bird
Also 6 fieres-bird.
1. † a. A bird which stays by or hovers round the fire (quot. 1593). b. (See quot. 1865.)
| 1593 Tell-troth's New Y. Gift 12 This weather-beaten fieres-bird. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. ix. 252 The story of the fire-bird..a bird which pecked at it [a tree] and made fire come forth. |
2. a. U.S. A popular name of the Baltimore oriole, Icterus galbula. b. A kind of bee-eater.
| 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. (1849) 436 The fire-bird streamed by them with his deep-red plumage. 1856 Bryant Poems, Indian Story viii, The hollow woods..Ring shrill with the fire-bird's lay. 1892 Pall Mall G. 12 Nov. 3/1 You may watch the red fire-bird (a kind of bee-eater) as it sweeps..round the bush-grown moat of the fortress. |