Find the word definition

Crossword clues for asio

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wiktionary
asio

n. (acronym of Australian security Security intelligence Intelligence organisation Organisation English)

Wikipedia
Asio

Asio is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. The genus Asio contains the eared owls, which are characterised by feather tufts on the head which give the appearance of "ears". The genus name Asio is the Latin name for a type of eared owl.

This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and South America, the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands. Its geographic range extends to all continents except Antarctica and Australia.

These are medium-sized owls, in length with wingspans. They are long winged and have the characteristic facial disc.

The two northern species are partially migratory, moving south in winter from the northern parts of their range, or wandering nomadically in poor vole years in search of better food supplies. Tropical Asio owls are largely sedentary.

Asio owls are mainly nocturnal, but short-eared owls are also crepuscular. Most species nest on the ground, but the long-eared owl, Asio otus, nests in the old stick nests of crows, ravens and magpies (family Corvidae) and various hawks.

These owls hunt over open fields or grasslands, taking mainly rodents, other small mammals and some birds.

Asio (disambiguation)

Asio is a genus of owls.

Asio or ASIO may also refer to:

  • asio C++ library, a programming library for asynchronous I/O
  • Audio Stream Input/Output, a protocol for low-latency digital audio
  • Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
  • "ASIO", a song by Redgum from Frontline

Usage examples of "asio".

There was an occasional shout or obscenity from the jockeys and strappers as a horse played up, but the morning was too cold for any sustained burst of temper.

Last night, lying awake in the strange bed, a huge bed that could have accommodated four people and so had an increased emptiness, reaching out on one occasion for the Orville who wasn't there, who would never be there again, there had been a long moment when she had wondered at the worth of going on alone.

He was not so innocent as to be totally shocked by what had happened: hold-ups and the occasional killing occurred regularly in banks, or so it seemed these days.

Originally its rich black soil had been covered by thick timber, an ideal hide-out for convicts escaping from the colony, a haunt for footpads preying on the occasional traveller heading south, and a camping ground for roving Aborigines who killed the convicts and the footpads as fair game.

Homosexuality occasionally raises its airy-fairy head but, like voting Labor, it is not considered socially acceptable.

McDonald's and Pizza Hut have invaded the region, but they are looked upon as unavoidable social necessities, like regimental brothels in other invasions elsewhere.

They took Joanna down to her hire car, shook hands with her, recognizing that she was not one for the social peck on the cheek, not on a first occasion.

But it was a question Malone had asked on other occasions about other killers and, despite what criminal psychologists might tell him, he had never found a true answer.

Nothing ever fell out of the sky, although occasionally a psycho wandered in with all the questions answered before they had been asked.

It was quiet, except for the gentle cooing of pigeons and the occasional flit of swallows leaving their nests in the rafters to hunt insects in the evening air.

Glancing over the parapet to check the river, I saw the normally swift, deep waters were slowed to a trickle between a series of pools, still except for the occasional trout rising for a fly.

As representatives of the imperialist `Yanquis' and `Britannicos', the other students spared us no quarter in the spirited and occasionally fierce classroom debates.

At about 2100 the DS would brief us on the night march, done in pairs, as the risk of navigating through the craggy mountain ranges in darkness was too great - candidates had occasionally died of exposure or made navigational errors and walked off cliffs.

Having had no previous experience of the army, even the most basic infantry skills were new to me: field survival, escape and evasion, long-range reconnaissance patrol techniques, dog evasion, abseiling from helicopters, foreign weapon familiarisation.

He spent hours on the phone, mostly chatting to friends organising expensive parties and occasionally to clients whom he oleaginously addressed as `Sir'.