The Collaborative International Dictionary
Secretary \Sec"re*ta*ry\, n.; pl. Secretaries. [F. secr['e]taire (cf. Pr. secretari, Sp. & Pg. secretario, It. secretario, segretario) LL. secretarius, originally, a confidant, one intrusted with secrets, from L. secretum a secret. See Secret, a. & n.]
One who keeps, or is intrusted with, secrets. [R.]
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A person employed to write orders, letters, dispatches, public or private papers, records, and the like; an official scribe, amanuensis, or writer; one who attends to correspondence, and transacts other business, for an association, a public body, or an individual.
That which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries, and employed men of ambassadors.
--Bacon. An officer of state whose business is to superintend and manage the affairs of a particular department of government, and who is usually a member of the cabinet or advisory council of the chief executive; as, the secretary of state, who conducts the correspondence and attends to the relations of a government with foreign courts; the secretary of the treasury, who manages the department of finance; the secretary of war, etc.
A piece of furniture, with conveniences for writing and for the arrangement of papers; an escritoire.
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(Zo["o]l.) The secretary bird.
Secretary bird. [So called in allusion to the tufts of feathers at the back of its head, which were fancifully thought to resemble pens stuck behind the ear.] (Zo["o]l.) A large long-legged raptorial bird ( Gypogeranus serpentarius), native of South Africa, but now naturalized in the West Indies and some other tropical countries. It has a powerful hooked beak, a crest of long feathers, and a long tail. It feeds upon reptiles of various kinds, and is much prized on account of its habit of killing and devouring snakes of all kinds. Called also serpent eater.
Syn: See the Note under Clerk, n., 4.
Wiktionary
n. A large terrestrial bird of prey, ''Sagittarius serpentarius'', native to Africa with very long legs that preys on reptiles, especially snakes.
WordNet
n. large long-legged African bird of prey that feeds on reptiles [syn: Sagittarius serpentarius]
Usage examples of "secretary bird".
And Auerbach discovered that his hawk on stilts was called a secretary bird.
An old man who walked like the secretary bird when it hunts for locusts in the grass.
At that distance he looked like a secretary bird hunting for serpents and rodents.
So many needles to ponk out to as many noodles as are company, they noddling all about it tutti to tempo, decumans numbered too, (a) well, that the secretary bird, better known as Pandoria Paullabucca, whom they thought was more like a solicitor general, indiscriminatingly made belief mid authorsagastions from Schelm the Pelman to write somewords to Senders about her chilikin puck, laughing that Poulebec would be the death of her, (b) that, well, that Madges Tighe, the postulate auditressee, when her daremood's a grownian, is always on the who goes where, hoping to Michal for the latter to turn up with a cupital tea before her ephumeral comes off without any much father which is .
It looked like a cross between a secretary bird and Einstein as it fiddled with the instruments suspended from its belt.
They look less imposing in Africa than they do there, for here they had such tall and ponderous birds as the Marabout and the Secretary Bird to be compared to.
At last, the slavemaster bowed again, his feathers bobbing like a secretary bird's twin crests.