▪ I. starling1
(ˈstɑːlɪŋ)
Forms: 1 stærlinc, 4–5 sterling(e, -yng(e, 5–6 starlinge, 5–6, 7–8 Sc. stirling, 6 starlyng, Sc. stirlene, styrlyng, 7 sterling, 4– starling. Also dial. starnel.
[OE. stærlinc, f. stær stare n.1: see -ling1.]
1. Any bird of the passerine genus Sturnus, esp. S. vulgaris. Now also applied in wider sense to any bird of the family Sturnidæ.
| a 1050 Gloss. (MS. Harl. 107) in Zeitschr. für deutsches Alterth. XXXIII. 241 Stærlinc, sturnus. a 1300 Cursor M. 1789 Þe sparhauk flough be þe sterling [Gött. starling]. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 151 Soundre de porks et d'estourneus [glossed sterlinges]. c 1450 Holland Howlat 713 The Maviss and the Merle syngis, Osillis and Stirlingis. c 1450 Merlin ix. 135 Thei smote in a-monge hem as faucouns amonge starlinges. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 238 The styrlyng changis diuers stevynnys nys. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. (1873) 39 The garruling of the stirlene gart the sparrou cheip. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 224 Ile haue a Starling shall be taught to speake Nothing but ‘Mortimer’. 1667–8 Pepys Diary 1 Mar., A starling which..do whistle and talk the most and best that ever I heard anything in my life. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 86 Then, after all this, came the jackdaws and sterlings (idle birds that they are!). 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 137 Of all the birds..I far prefer the stirling's notes. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 25 (Hotel at Paris), ‘I can't get out’, said the starling. 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 103 The Starlings are found only in the Old World, where they form a very large and natural Group. 1880 W. Carnegie Pract. Trapping 40 It is not generally known what a delicious bird the starling is to eat. 1894–5 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. III. 343 Starlings..all agree in possessing a wing with five primary quills, and twelve tail-feathers. |
b. With prefixed word designating a particular species, genus, or group belonging to the family Sturnidæ.
| 1734 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds II. 38 The yellow Starling from Bengall. 1743 G. Edwards Nat. Hist. Birds I. 19 The Chinese Starling or Black-Bird. 1821 T. Bewick Brit. Birds Suppl. i. 14 The Rose Coloured Starling. 1829 Griffith tr. Cuvier VII. 37 The..collared stare, Persian starling, and Alpine warbler. 1869–73 T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds I. 227 The Sardinian Starling (Sturnus unicolor). Ibid. The Rose Starling or Shepherd-bird (Pastor roseus). Ibid. 232 The Glossy Starlings (Lamprotornithes). Ibid. 234 The True Glossy Starlings (Lamprocolii). 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 435 The Shining Starling, Calornis metailica. |
c. Applied to birds of the American family Icteridæ.
| 1731 Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina (1754) I. 13 The red-wing'd Starling. 1839 Audubon Ornith. Biog. V. 487 Red-winged Starling, Icterus phœniceus. 1869–73 T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds I. 215 The Yellow or Golden Starlings. |
2. A kind of pigeon. Also starling-pigeon.
| 1867 Tegetmeier Pigeons xxi. 174 The Starlings are dark-coloured birds, white barred, with a speckled, crescent-shaped band across the crop. 1881 Lyell Pigeons 97 The Starling pigeon is a Continental variety, and in Germany it goes by the name of Der Staarenhals, or the starling neck. Ibid. 98 With age the starling often loses its marking to a great extent. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1884 Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 267 Boregata (Hexagrammus Stelleri)... The name ‘Starling’ is applied to some fish, supposed by us to be this species, in the Straits of Fuca. |
4. slang. (See quot.)
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Brother-starling, that Lies with the same Woman. |
5. Comb. as starling-breasted, starling-like, adjs.
| 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 272 The starling-breasted pigeon. 1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 101 The first family of the starling-like perching birds. The Weaver Birds (Ploceidæ). |
▪ II. starling2
(ˈstɑːlɪŋ)
Forms: 8 steerling, stirling, 8–9 sterling, 7– starling.
[Possibly a corruption of staddling.]
An outwork of piles, projecting in front of the lower part of the pier of a bridge, so as to form a protection for the pier against the force of the stream or to secure it from damage by the impact of vessels or floating objects.
| c 1684 Old Ballads Gt. Frost (Percy Soc.) 29 And on the starlings [was] kept the brandy trade. 1714 Macky Journ. Eng. I. xiii. 192 Arches..fenced with large Sterlings for the keeping off the Force of the Tide. 1724 De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. I. iii. 124 The Islands of Scilly..are plac'd like Outworks to resist the first Assaults of this Enemy [the ocean]..as the Piles or Starlings (as they are call'd) are plac'd before the solid Stone-work of London-bridge, to fence off the Force, either of the Water or Ice, or [etc.]. 1739 C. Labelye Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge 42 There must be..a necessity of building Steerlings to preserve the Piers. 1773 Noorthouck Hist. Lond. 561 The passage under the arches [of old London Bridge] was contracted by enormous platforms, built round the decaying piers, called sterlings. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 49 We laid three Beams stretching the whole Length of the Pier from Sterling to Sterling. 1778 H. Bowman Trav. 337 The stream still more streightened by starlings filled with large stones placed round the bottoms of the peers. 1840 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 106/2 Piers and..ponts or chests..made salient at each end like the starlings of a bridge. 1878 Stevenson Inland Voy. 17 They perched upon sterlings and buttresses. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 405 The starling is that portion of the pier which faces the direction of the stream, and acts like the cutwater of a ship. |
▪ III. starling3 nonce-wd.
(ˈstɑːlɪŋ)
[f. star n.1 + -ling.]
An inhabitant of a star.
| 1839 Bailey Festus xiv. (1848) 150 Thou shouldest have been a starling, friend, And not an earthling. |
▪ IV. starling
obs. form of sterling n.1