Wren

(rĕn)

A member of the British Women's Royal Naval Service.

wren

(rĕn)

1. Any of various small brownish songbirds of the family Troglodytidae, having rounded wings, a slender bill, and a short, often erect tail. All species but one, which is Eurasian, are found only in the Americas.

2. Any of various similar unrelated songbirds.

[Middle English wrenne, from Old English wrenna.]

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.

wren

(rɛn)

1. (Animals) any small brown passerine songbird of the chiefly American family Troglodytidae, esp Troglodytes troglodytes (wren in Britain, winter wren in the US and Canada). They have a slender bill and feed on insects

2. (Animals) any of various similar birds of the families Muscicapidae (Australian warblers), Xenicidae (New Zealand wrens), etc

[Old English wrenna, werna; related to Old High German wrendo, rentilo, Old Norse rindill]

Wren

(rɛn)

(Military) history informal (in Britain and certain other nations) a member of the former Women's Royal Naval Service

[C20: from the abbreviation WRNS]

Wren

(rɛn)

(Biography) Sir Christopher. 1632–1723, English architect. He designed St Paul's Cathedral and over 50 other London churches after the Great Fire as well as many secular buildings

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

wren

(rɛn)

n.

1. any of various small, active songbirds of the family Troglodytidae, with streaked or spotted brown-gray plumage, a slender bill, and, in many species, elaborate vocal repertoires: found only in the New World with the exception of Troglodytes troglodytes, of North America, Eurasia, and NW Africa.

2. any of various similar, unrelated songbirds, as Australasian flycatchers of the subfamily Malurinae and New Zealand birds of the family Acanthisittidae.

[before 900; Middle English wrenn(e), Old English wrenna, obscurely akin to Old High German wrendilo, Old Norse rindill]

Wren

(rɛn)

n.

Sir Christopher, 1632–1723, English architect.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Wren - English architect who designed more than fifty London churches (1632-1723) Sir Christopher Wren
	2.	wren - any of several small active brown birds of the northern hemisphere with short upright tails; they feed on insects jenny wren passeriform bird, passerine - perching birds mostly small and living near the ground with feet having 4 toes arranged to allow for gripping the perch; most are songbirds; hatchlings are helpless family Troglodytidae, Troglodytidae - wrens Troglodytes troglodytes, winter wren - small wren of coniferous forests of northern hemisphere house wren, Troglodytes aedon - common American wren that nests around houses marsh wren - a wren of the genus Cistothorus that frequents marshes Salpinctes obsoletus, rock wren - wren inhabiting badlands and mesa country of western United States and Mexico Carolina wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus - large United States wren with a musical call cactus wren - large harsh-voiced American wren of arid regions of the United States southwest and Mexico

wren

noun

Related words
female jenny

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

صَعْوصَعْو: طائِر صَغير مُغَرِّد

střízlík

gærdesmutte

Zaunkönig

τρωγλοδύτης

carrizo

käblik

peukaloinen

roitelet

palčić

ökörszem

músarrindill

scricciolo ausiliaria

ミソサザイ

굴뚝새

karetaitė

zeltgalvītisžubīte

winterkoning winterkoninkje

gärdsmyg

çalı kuşuçalıkuşuçit kuşu

chim hồng tước

鹪鹩

wren

[ren] N (Orn) → reyezuelo m, troglodito m

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

wren

[ˈrɛn] n → troglodyte m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

wren

n → Zaunkönig m

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

wren

[rɛn] n → scricciolo

wren

(ren) noun

a type of very small bird.

wren

→ صَعْو střízlík gærdesmutte Zaunkönig τρωγλοδύτης carrizo peukaloinen roitelet palčić scricciolo ミソサザイ 굴뚝새 winterkoning gjerdesmett strzyżyk carriça, corruíra крапивник gärdsmyg นกขนาดเล็กสีน้ำตาลร้องเพลงไพเราะอยู่ในตระกูล Troglodytidae çalıkuşu chim hồng tước 鹪鹩

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

'I don't know about that,' Miss Wren retorted; 'but you had better by half set up a pen-wiper, and turn industrious, and use it.'

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Williamson strolled leisurely down the gravel walk, plucking a flower as he went, passed across the road and into the pasture, pausing a moment as he closed the gate leading into it, to greet a passing neighbor, Armour Wren, who lived on an adjoining plantation.

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It was one of her "beauty days." Happiness, excitement, the color of the green dress, and the touch of lovely pink in the coral necklace had transformed the little brown wren for the time into a bird of plumage, and Adam Ladd watched her with evident satisfaction.

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Then there is the Fortune Theatre near Cripplegate, and, most charming of all, two views--street and river fronts--the Duke's Theatre, Dorset Garden, in Fleet Street, designed by Wren, decorated by Gibbons--graceful, naive, dainty, like the work of a very refined Palladio, working minutely, perhaps more delicately than at Vicenza, in the already crowded city on the Thames side.

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Of heaven imperial That Philip may fly Above the starry sky To greet the pretty wren That is our Lady's hen, Amen, amen, amen.

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"Ay, the old Madman has got the best collection in the house, out and out," said Tom; and then Martin, warming with unaccustomed good cheer and the chance of a convert, launched out into a proposed bird-nesting campaign, betraying all manner of important secrets--a golden-crested wren's nest near Butlin's Mound, a moor-hen who was sitting on nine eggs in a pond down the Barby road, and a kingfisher's nest in a corner of the old canal above Brownsover Mill.

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A little, dusky-coloured wren (Scytalopus Magellanicus) hops in a skulking manner among the entangled mass of the fallen and decaying trunks.

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That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings: I feasted instead on the spectacle of ideal drawings, which I saw in the dark; all the work of my own hands: freely pencilled houses and trees, picturesque rocks and ruins, Cuyp-like groups of cattle, sweet paintings of butterflies hovering over unblown roses, of birds picking at ripe cherries, of wren's nests enclosing pearl-like eggs, wreathed about with young ivy sprays.

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"Oh no, if you please'm; that's a damask table-cloth belonging to Jenny Wren; look how it's stained with currant wine!

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'Is that the royal palace?' cried the bear; 'it is a wretched palace, and you are not King's children, you are disreputable children!' When the young wrens heard that, they were frightfully angry, and screamed:

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For instance, we can understand on the principle of inheritance, how it is that the thrush of South America lines its nest with mud, in the same peculiar manner as does our British thrush: how it is that the male wrens (Troglodytes) of North America, build 'cock-nests,' to roost in, like the males of our distinct Kitty-wrens,--a habit wholly unlike that of any other known bird.

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And as she was trying to comfort him they heard a rustling of wings, and a flight of wrens alighted on the ground beside them.

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