The Collaborative International Dictionary
Barn \Barn\ (b[aum]rn), n. [OE. bern, AS. berern, bern; bere barley + ern, [ae]rn, a close place. [root]92. See Barley.] A covered building used chiefly for storing grain, hay, and other productions of a farm. In the United States a part of the barn is often used for stables.
Barn owl (Zo["o]l.), an owl of Europe and America ( Aluco flammeus, or Strix flammea), which frequents barns and other buildings.
Barn swallow (Zo["o]l.), the common American swallow ( Hirundo horreorum), which attaches its nest of mud to the beams and rafters of barns.
Wiktionary
n. ''Hirundo rustica'', the most widespread species of swallow in the world; a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings, is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
WordNet
n. common swallow of North America and Europe that nests in barns etc. [syn: chimney swallow, Hirundo rustica]
Wikipedia
The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Anglophone Europe it is just called the swallow; in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a " swallow" rather than a " martin".
There are six subspecies of barn swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere. Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia. Its huge range means that the barn swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats.
The barn swallow is a bird of open country that normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion. It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight. This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by man; this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest. There are frequent cultural references to the barn swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration. The barn swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.
Usage examples of "barn swallow".
A barn swallow with nesting straw in its beak flickered by, circled, decided they were no threat, and darted with forked tail dipping.
Tristan and Iseult were still there, presiding over the empty dining room, though Iseult had suffered an injury to her harp, and a barn swallow or two had built over the middle window.
If he slid an inch, he thought, even a half-inch, he'd be flung into space like straw from a barn swallow's beak.
You're a beggar and a thief, a gambler and a dope addict, you seem intent on bedding every woman on the face of the earth, and to be perfectly candid about it, you haven't the intellectual capacity of a retarded barn swallow.
Poor Shicky, trying to balance himself in flight without any legs, flapping around like a barn swallow chasing bugs as he scoops the cobwebby scraps out of Gateway’.
Poor Shicky, trying to balance himself in flight without any legs, flapping around like a barn swallow chasing bugs as he scoops the cobwebby scraps out of Gateway's air?