The AI-powered English dictionary
plural pelicans
Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch. quotations examples
The old have outlived that mental world we so misname in calling it a world of enjoyment;—they have outlived the feverish dreams which waste those keen hopes—the pelicans of the heart, feeding on the life-blood of their parent;—they have now no part in the excitement of success, whether in its desire or disappointment.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 54
Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.
1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, page 71
A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana. examples
(chemistry, obsolete) A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.
(dentistry) A set of forceps used to force overcrowded teeth apart. examples