cor·mo·rant

(kôr′mər-ənt, -mə-rănt′)

1. Any of several large, widely distributed marine diving birds of the genus Phalacrocorax, having dark plumage, webbed feet, and a slender hooked bill.

2. A greedy, rapacious person.

adj.

Greedy; rapacious.

[Middle English cormoraunt, from Old French cormorant : probably corp, raven; see corbel + *marenc, of the sea (later attested in dialectal French (Sark) pie marange, oystercatcher, literally magpie of the sea, and ultimately from Latin mare, sea; see mori- in Indo-European roots), perhaps influenced by Breton mor, sea (as in morvran, cormorant, literally raven of the sea).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cormorant

(ˈkɔːmərənt)

(Animals) any aquatic bird of the family Phalacrocoracidae, of coastal and inland waters, having a dark plumage, a long neck and body, and a slender hooked beak: order Pelecaniformes (pelicans, etc)

[C13: from Old French cormareng, from corp raven, from Latin corvus + -mareng of the sea, from Latin mare sea]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cor•mo•rant

(ˈkɔr mər ənt)

n.

1. any of various typically dark-plumaged diving seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, of worldwide distribution, having a long neck and a throat pouch for holding fish.

2. a greedy person.

[1300–50; Middle English < Middle French; Old French cormareng < Late Latin corvusmarīnus sea raven. See corvine, marine]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

cormorant - large voracious dark-colored long-necked seabird with a distensible pouch for holding fish; used in Asia to catch fish

Phalacrocorax carbo

pelecaniform seabird - large fish-eating seabird with four-toed webbed feet

genus Phalacrocorax, Phalacrocorax - type genus: coextensive with the family Phalacrocoracidae

Translations

kormorán

merimetso

cormoran

kormorán

cormorano

aalscholver

storskarv

kormoran

баклан

cormorant

[ˈkɔːmərənt] N → cormorán m (grande)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cormorant

[ˈkɔː^rmərənt] n → cormoran m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cormorant

n → Kormoran m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cormorant

[ˈkɔːm/ər/ənt] n → cormorano

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Put out of countenance by the manner in which he thus "set foot" upon the New World, he uttered a loud cry, which so frightened the innumerable cormorants and pelicans that are always perched upon these movable quays, that they flew noisily away.

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There are those who, like cormorants and ostriches, can digest all sorts of this, even after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables, for they suffer nothing to be wasted.

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Whether whales feed on them I do not know; but terns, cormorants, and immense herds of great unwieldy seals derive, on some parts of the coast, their chief sustenance from these swimming crabs.

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You must go alone, my dear; I dare not let those two cormorants out of my sight." So saying he re-entered the cafe.

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Pepper with all his learning had been mistaken for a cormorant, and then, as unjustly, transformed into a cow.

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Of all the ingenious modes of torture that have ever been invented, that of solitary confinement is probably the most cruel--the mind feeding on itself with the rapacity of a cormorant, when the conscience quickens its activity and feeds its longings.

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"What will he say when, instead of a pair of plump turtle doves, billing and cooing in a bower of roses, he finds a single lean cormorant, standing mateless and shelterless on poverty's bleak cliff?

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One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam; its beak held a gold bracelet set with gems, that I had touched with as brilliant tints as my palette could yield, and as glittering distinctness as my pencil could impart.

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He took the wand with which he seals men's eyes in sleep or wakes them just as he pleases, and flew holding it in his hand over Pieria; then he swooped down through the firmament till he reached the level of the sea, whose waves he skimmed like a cormorant that flies fishing every hole and corner of the ocean, and drenching its thick plumage in the spray.

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Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, The middle Tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true Life Thereby regaind, but sat devising Death To them who liv'd; nor on the vertue thought Of that life-giving Plant, but only us'd For prospect, what well us'd had bin the pledge Of immortalitie.

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I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well.

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Cormorants, like all wild birds, are protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Aerial invaders making life difficult for anglers on the banks