English Explanatory Dictionary

puffin

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The young of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), especially eaten as food.
  2. The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) or (by extension) any of the other various small seabirds of the genera Fratercula and Lunda that are black and white with a brightly-coloured beak.
  3. Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as albatrosses.
  4. A puffball.

Pronunciation

/ˈpʌfɪn/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-puffin.wav

Word forms

puffin puffins

Etymology

From Middle English poffin, poffoun, puffon, equivalent to puff + -ing, or perhaps ultimately from Middle Cornish (compare Breton poc'han (“puffin”)).

Synonyms

pope sea-parrot

Related words

fraterculine

Derived words

Atlantic puffin common puffin crested puffin horned puffin puffin crossing puffinet puffinry puffling tufted puffin
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on P Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary