pelican
Pluralpelicans
- 1A large seabird of the family Pelecanidae, with a long bill and an expandable throat pouch used to catch fish.
A pelican glided low over the waves before plunging for its meal.
The brown pelican tucks its wings and dives steeply to catch fish.
Note
The bird's name reaches back through Latin pelecanus to Greek pelekan, which is linked to pelekus, "hatchet," probably for the formidable bill. The bird has long carried figurative weight as well. In 1831 Letitia Elizabeth Landon called consuming hopes "the pelicans of the heart, feeding on the life-blood of their parent," drawing on the old image of a pelican sustained by its parent's blood.
- 2A person born in or living in the American state of Louisiana.
Every pelican in the room stood when the Louisiana anthem played.
The senator called herself a lifelong pelican from Baton Rouge.
SimilarLouisianian
- 3A type of dental forceps used to force overcrowded teeth apart.
The surgeon used the pelican to ease the impacted tooth aside.
Each pelican in the antique kit had a sharp, curved arm of steel.
Note
A dentist's instrument from before modern extractors, built to lever crowded teeth apart. Its recurved, beak-like arm explains the borrowed name. In historical and medical writing it is often called the dental pelican. That fuller name is worth using wherever the bird or the chemist's still might also come to a reader's mind.
- 4An aircraft used to fight wildfires by scooping up and dropping large loads of water.
The crew called in a pelican when the flames reached the tree line.
A pelican dumped thousands of gallons on the advancing fire.
Similarwaterbomber
Note
Canadian firefighters use this slang for an aircraft that skims a lake to fill its tanks in flight, then drops the load on a fire front. The nickname borrows from the seabird, which also scoops its catch from the water. In news reports or formal writing, waterbomber is the safer word, and pelican reads as crew talk.
- 5A derogatory slang word for a prostitute who has grown old.
The constable knew every pelican who plied the dockside alleys after dark.
She feared ending her days as a pelican, ignored on the cold street corners.
Note
Slang that turns a bird's name into an insult, aimed at a woman's age as much as her trade. Use it only when quoting or depicting rough speech. In ordinary writing it reads as a slur. Most readers will hear the seabird first, so this meaning needs its surroundings, such as a street corner or a dockside, before it registers.
Less common meaning
- 6A type of still or retort fitted with curved tubes that lead vapor from the head back to the body, allowing continuous condensation and repeated distillation.
The alchemist sealed the wine in a pelican and let it circulate over a gentle flame.
Vapor rose through the pelican and trickled back down its curved arms into the body.
Note
A vessel from early chemistry, met now only in historical writing about distillation and alchemy. Its whole design keeps the vapor in play: it climbs to the head and runs back down curved arms into the body, to be condensed and distilled again and again. A modern chemist would call the principle reflux, and would not call the apparatus a pelican.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of pelican apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
It comes from Middle English pellican and Old English pellican, from Latin pelecānus, which came from Ancient Greek πελεκάν (pelekán), related to πέλεκυς (pélekus, "hatchet").