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Webster 1913 Edition


Pelican

Pel′i-can

(pĕl′ĭ-kan)
,
Noun.
[F.
pélican
, L.
pelicanus
,
pelecanus
, Gr.
πελεκάν
,
πελεκᾶς
,
πελέκανος
, the woodpecker, and also a water bird of the pelican kind, fr.
πελεκᾶν
to hew with an ax, fr.
πέλεκυσ
an ax, akin to Skr.
paraçu
.]
[Written also
pelecan
.]
1.
(Zool.)
Any large webfooted bird of the genus
Pelecanus
, of which about a dozen species are known. They have an enormous bill, to the lower edge of which is attached a pouch in which captured fishes are temporarily stored.
☞ The American white pelican (
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
) and the brown species (
Pelecanus fuscus
) are abundant on the Florida coast in winter, but breed about the lakes in the Rocky Mountains and British America.
2.
(Old Chem.)
A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.
☞ The principle is still employed in certain modern forms of distilling apparatus.
Frigate pelican
(Zool.)
,
the frigate bird. See under
Frigate
.
Pelican fish
(Zool.)
,
deep-sea fish (
Eurypharynx pelecanoides
) of the order
Lyomeri
, remarkable for the enormous development of the jaws, which support a large gular pouch.
Pelican flower
(Bot.)
,
the very large and curiously shaped blossom of a climbing plant (
Aristolochia grandiflora
) of the West Indies; also, the plant itself.
Pelican ibis
(Zool.)
,
a large Asiatic wood ibis (
Tantalus leucocephalus
). The head and throat are destitute of feathers; the plumage is white, with the quills and the tail greenish black.
Pelican in her piety
(in heraldry and symbolical art),
a representation of a pelican in the act of wounding her breast in order to nourish her young with her blood; – a practice fabulously attributed to the bird, on account of which it was adopted as a symbol of the Redeemer, and of charity.
Pelican’s foot
(Zool.)
,
a marine gastropod shell of the genus
Aporrhais
, esp.
Aporrhais pes-pelicani
of Europe.

Webster 1828 Edition


Pelican

PEL'ICAN

,
Noun.
[Low L. pelicanus.]
1.
A fowl of the genus Pelicanus. It is larger than the swan, and remarkable for its enormous bill, to the lower edges of the under chop of which is attached a pouch or bag, capable of being distended so as to hold many quarts of water. In this bag the fowl deposits the fish is takes for food.
2.
A chimical glass vessel or alembic with a tubulated capital, from which two opposite and crooked beaks pass out and enter again at the belly of the cucurbit. It is designed for continued distillation and cohobation; the volatile parts of the substance distilling, rising into the capital and returning through the beaks into the cucurbit.

Definition 2024


pélican

pélican

See also: pelican

French

pélican

Noun

pélican m (plural pélicans)

  1. pelican (any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae)

Anagrams


Norman

Etymology

Borrowing from French pélican, from Latin pelecānus, from Ancient Greek πελεκάν (pelekán).

Noun

pélican m (plural pélicans)

  1. (Jersey) pelican