Crossword clues for popinjay
popinjay
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Yaffle \Yaf"fle\, n. [Probably imitative of its call or cry.] (Zo["o]l.) The European green woodpecker ( Picus viridis syn. Genius viridis). It is noted for its loud laughlike note. Called also eccle, hewhole, highhoe, laughing bird, popinjay, rain bird, yaffil, yaffler, yaffingale, yappingale, yackel, and woodhack.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 13c., "a parrot," from Old French papegai (12c.), from Spanish papagayo, from Arabic babagha', Persian babgha "parrot," possibly formed in an African or other non-Indo-European language and imitative of its cry. Ending probably assimilated in Western European languages to "jay" words (Old French jai, etc.).\n
\nUsed of people in a complimentary sense (in allusion to beauty and rarity) from early 14c.; meaning "vain, talkative person" is first recorded 1520s. Obsolete figurative sense of "a target to shoot at" is explained by Cotgrave's 2nd sense definition: "also a woodden parrot (set up on the top of a steeple, high tree, or pole) whereat there is, in many parts of France, a generall shooting once euerie yeare; and an exemption, for all that yeare, from La Taille, obtained by him that strikes downe" all or part of the bird.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) A decorative image of a parrot on a tapestry, cloth etc. (14th-16th c.) 2 (context now archaic English) A parrot. (from 14th c.) 3 (context heraldiccharge English) A heraldic representation of a parrot. (from 15th c.) 4 A vain, gaudy person; someone who is shallow or superficial. (from 16th c.) 5 (context archery English) A target to shoot at, typically stuffed with feathers or plumage. (from 16th c.) 6 (context UK English) The green woodpecker, ''Picus viridis''. (from 19th c.)
WordNet
n. a vain and talkative person (chatters like a parrot)
archaic
Wikipedia
Popinjay may refer to:
- Old-fashioned term for a parrot (cf. German Papagei)
- A dandy or foppish person
- Popinjay (sport), a shooting sport that can be performed with either rifles or archery equipment
- Popinjay, Stibochiona nicea, a species of butterfly
- Popinjay (Wild Cards), a Wild Cards character
- Popinjays, a British indie pop band
- Corporal Popinjay, a Catch-22 character
thumb|right|Popinjay mast for archery in Havré (Belgium) Popinjay or Papingo (signifying a painted bird), also called pole archery, is a shooting sport that can be performed with either rifles or archery equipment. The rifle form is a popular diversion in Denmark; a Scottish variant is also known. The archery form is popular in Belgium and is shot occasionally in the United Kingdom under the governance of the Grand National Archery Society. In Germany a traditional shooting at wooden birds placed on a high pole is called "Vogelschießen" (that is "bird shooting"). These are carried out either with small bore rifles or crossbows.
Usage examples of "popinjay".
And this magnificent, absurd creature--this mouthing, grimacing, attitudinising popinjay, thought Austin, was no other than Mr Bucephalus Buskin, with whom he had chatted on easy terms in a common field only a few days previously!
His project, as he went on to expound, was to withdraw from the round of idle pleasures such as form the chief business of sir Fopling Popinjay and sir Milksop Quidnunc in town and to devote himself to the noblest task for which our bodily organism has been framed.
To certain Lombards ready in their hond The sum of gold, and got of them his bond, And home he went, merry as a popinjay.
Gilded popinjays who pretend to scholarship and whose only virtue is that they provided employment for impoverished sizars was the consensus reached last Michaelmas, was it not?
He is, in brief, a hollow and incompetent creature, a strutter and poseur, a popinjay, a pretty one.
As in the inventories of the thirty towns I find no mention either of stockings or of shoes for Indians, with the exception of the low shoes and buckles worn by the Alferez Real, it seems the gorgeous costumes ended at the knee, and that these popinjays rode barefoot, with, perhaps, large iron Gaucho spurs fastened by strips of mare-hide round their ankles, and hanging down below their naked feet.
With his painted shield, embroidered surcote, and golden spurs, he felt himself a gaudy popinjay in the company of ravens.
The men of the world who flocked to pay their court to her, and the popinjays who followed them, all knew this look and a tone in her rich voice which could cut like a knife when she chose that it should do so.
I might here name a sort of hues devised for the nonce, wherewith to please fantastical heads, as goose-turd green, peas-porridge tawny, popinjay blue, lusty gallant, the devil-in-the-head (I should say the hedge), and such like.
Then there were stuffed birds, popinjays, and maggot-pies and kingfishers, and peacocks with all their feathers but two, and tiny birds like beetles, and a reputed phoenix which smelt of incense and cinnamon.
Roanna had learned much of court fashion when she’d spent an entire morning spying on the popinjays who sought audience with Queen Regent Marie de Guise.
But then Elizabeth often drifted off into Welsh, German, or Italian as well just to keep the flock of popinjays around her off-balance.
Were you to metamorphose into one of those strutting, supercilious popinjays mat seem to abound in the capital, and sometimes deign to come out to Goohm.
Were you to metamorphose into one of those strutting, supercilious popinjays that seem to abound in the capital, and sometimes deign to come out to Goohm, I might be some loath to admit I know you.