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puffin

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L326091 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈpʌfɪn/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English poffin, poffoun, puffon, equivalent to puff + -ing, or perhaps ultimately from Middle Cornish (compare Breton poc'han (“puffin”)).

  1. The young of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), especially eaten as food.
  2. The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) or (by extension) any of the other various small seabirds of the genera Fratercula and Lunda that are black and white with a brightly-coloured beak.

    Naturally the Chickies and the Gooverooskies and the Epatkas—the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude—took up the cry, and—so Limmershin told me—for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet.

  3. Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as albatrosses.
  4. A puffball.