Penguin

Quick meaning: Penguin is a noun meaning A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, Bromelia pinguin.

Meaning

A spiny bromeliad with egg-shaped fleshy fruit, Bromelia pinguin.

More Meanings

1. (UK, military, slang) A member of the air force who does not fly aircraft.
2. (juggling) A type of catch where the palm of the hand is facing towards the leg with the arm stretched downward, resembling the flipper of a penguin.
3. Any of several flightless sea birds, of the family Spheniscidae within the order Sphenisciformes, found in the Southern Hemisphere, marked by their usual upright stance, walking on short legs, and (generally) their stark black and white plumage.
4. (obsolete or historical) An auk (sometimes especially a great auk), a bird of the Northern Hemisphere.
5. (slang) A nun.

Example Sentences

She may have been a “penguin”—an Air Force service member who didn't fly—but it sure beat being at home, as Brady had pointed out.

Here are also birds cal'd Pen-gwins (white-head in Welch) like Pigmies walking upright, their finns or wings hanging very orderly downe like sleeves […]

This last species of penguin, or auk, seems to be the same with the alca cirrhata of Dr. Pallis, Spicileg. Zool. Fasc. v. p. 7. tab. i. & v. fig. 1–3. F.

More than a hundred years ago, for example, was seen the last of the great wingless penguins or auks, which early writers quaintly called " wobble-birds."

Word Forms

• penguins

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include auk, plume, hideout, hideaway, one-armed, stash.

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