sandpiper
USSAND-py-pur/ˈsænd.paɪpɚ/UKSAND-py-puh/ˈsænd.paɪpə/
Pluralsandpipers
- 1Any of various small wading birds of the family Scolopacidae, typically found along shores, mudflats, and wetlands.
A lone sandpiper probed the mudflat with its slender bill at low tide.
Flocks of sandpipers gathered along the estuary during the fall migration.
Note
A plain-spoken compound, sand plus piper: the bird is named for the ground it works and the piping call it makes. It is a loose label for many scolopacids rather than the name of one species, so precise writing usually adds a qualifier. In Norman Lindsay's Age of Consent (1938), a rider galloping over the downs ends up "setting up the sandpipers," sending them up off the ground.
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Origin
Formed from "sand" plus "piper".