- a large bird, completely or mostly black, with a rough unpleasant call see also carrion crowTopics Birdsc1Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
- black
- carrion
- flock
- fly
- perch
- caw
- …
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- a sound like that of a rooster (= an adult male chicken) crowing
- She gave a little crow of triumph.
Word Originnoun sense 1 Old English crāwe, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch kraai and German Krähe, also to the verb crow. noun sense 2 Old English crāwan, of West Germanic origin; related to German krähen, also to crow the bird; ultimately imitative.
Idioms
See crow in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryas the crow flies
- in a straight line
- The villages are no more than a mile apart as the crow flies.
eat crow (North American English)
(also eat humble pie British and North American English)
- to say and show that you are sorry for a mistake that you made
stone the crows | stone me
- (British English, old-fashioned) used to express surprise, shock, anger, etc.
Check pronunciation:
crow