Stork

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stork \Stork\, n. [AS. storc; akin to G. storch, OHG. storah,
     Icel. storkr, Dan. & Sw. stork, and perhaps to Gr. ? a
     vulture.] (Zool.)
     Any one of several species of large wading birds of the
     family {Ciconidae}, having long legs and a long, pointed
     bill. They are found both in the Old World and in America,


     and belong to {Ciconia} and several allied genera. The
     European white stork ({Ciconia alba}) is the best known. It
     commonly makes its nests on the top of a building, a chimney,
     a church spire, or a pillar. The black stork ({Ciconia
     nigra}) is native of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Black-necked stork}, the East Indian jabiru.
  
     {Hair-crested stork}, the smaller adjutant of India
        ({Leptoptilos Javanica}).
  
     {Giant stork}, the adjutant.
  
     {Marabou stork}. See {Marabou}. -- Saddle-billed stork, the
        African jabiru. See {Jabiru}.
  
     {Stork's bill} (Bot.), any plant of the genus {Pelargonium};
        -- so called in allusion to the beaklike prolongation of
        the axis of the receptacle of its flower. See
        {Pelargonium}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  stork
       n : large mostly Old World wading birds typically having
           white-and-black plumage

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  22 Moby Thesaurus words for "stork":
     accouchement, birth, birth throes, birthing, blessed event,
     childbearing, childbed, childbirth, confinement, delivery, genesis,
     giving birth, hatching, having a baby, labor, multiparity,
     nascency, nativity, parturition, the Nativity, the stork,
     travail
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Stork
     Heb. hasidah, meaning "kindness," indicating thus the character
     of the bird, which is noted for its affection for its young. It
     is in the list of birds forbidden to be eaten by the Levitical
     law (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18). It is like the crane, but larger
     in size. Two species are found in Palestine, the white, which
     are dispersed in pairs over the whole country; and the black,
     which live in marshy places and in great flocks. They migrate to
     Palestine periodically (about the 22nd of March). Jeremiah
     alludes to this (Jer. 8:7). At the appointed time they return
     with unerring sagacity to their old haunts, and re-occupy their
     old nests. "There is a well-authenticated account of the
     devotion of a stork which, at the burning of the town of Delft,
     after repeated and unsuccessful attempts to carry off her young,
     chose rather to remain and perish with them than leave them to
     their fate. Well might the Romans call it the pia avis!"
     
       In Job 39:13 (A.V.), instead of the expression "or wings and
     feathers unto the ostrich" (marg., "the feathers of the stork
     and ostrich"), the Revised Version has "are her pinions and
     feathers kindly" (marg., instead of "kindly," reads "like the
     stork's"). The object of this somewhat obscure verse seems to be
     to point out a contrast between the stork, as distinguished for
     her affection for her young, and the ostrich, as distinguished
     for her indifference.
     
       Zechariah (5:9) alludes to the beauty and power of the stork's
     wings.