crows

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of crow.

   A noisy group of crows settled in the bare oak at dusk.

   Farmers often watch crows picking through the stubble after harvest.

   Note

   A regular plural, and one spelling that gathers several different crows: the black birds of the genus Corvus, the dark butterflies of the genus Euploea, and iron bars used as levers, the crowbar's short name. Older uses survive too: an archaic slang word for a lookout who keeps watch during a crime, and the boarding gangplank of the Roman navy. The same letters also spell the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of crow.

   Their rooster crows before the sun is even up.

   He crows about his new car to everyone at work.

   Note

   The present-tense form for he, she or it, and it carries three verbs in one. One is the rooster's shrill call. Another is the boaster's bragging. The third is a woodwind player's test of a double reed, blown alone in the mouth. All three are intransitive, so a braggart crows about something and does not crow it. Context separates this form from the plural noun, which shares its spelling.

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