pelican
Pluralpelicans
- 1A large water bird with a long beak and a stretchy pouch under it for scooping up fish.
Like a fishing net you carry under your chin.
A pelican dived into the bay and scooped up a fish.
Pelicans gathered on the pier, waiting for fishermen to toss them scraps.
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- 2Someone who was born in or lives in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
Like calling a person from New York a New Yorker.
As a proud pelican, she always cheered for the Louisiana teams.
Many pelicans return home to New Orleans for the festival each spring.
SimilarLouisianian
- 3A dental tool with curved arms used to push crowded teeth apart.
Like pliers that grip a tooth and pull it sideways.
The dentist reached for a pelican to separate the crowded teeth.
Old dental kits often included a pelican for difficult cases.
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- 4A plane that scoops up water and drops it on wildfires.
Like a flying bucket that fills at a lake and pours water on flames.
A pelican swooped low over the lake to fill its tanks.
Two pelicans circled the burning ridge before dropping their loads.
Similarwaterbomber
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- 5A rude slang word for an older woman who works as a prostitute.
The sailors mocked the old pelican working the harbor streets.
An aging pelican leaned in the tavern doorway, calling to passersby.
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Less common meaning
- 6An old glass still with curved tubes that carried vapor back down so the liquid could boil again and again.
Like a pot where steam rises, cools, and drips back in to boil over and over.
The chemist heated the mixture in a pelican for several days.
An old pelican stood on the bench, its tubes curving back to the flask.
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Practice
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Origin
It comes from Latin pelecānus, which came from a Greek word.