plover meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

plover

noun

US /ˈplʌvɚ/ · UK /ˈplʌvə/

Etymology Inherited from Middle English plover, from Anglo-Norman plover, plovier, from Medieval Latin plovarius, pluviārius, of disputed origin; perhaps from Latin pluvia (“rain”).

Any of various wading birds of the subfamily Charadriinae.

Australia A masked lapwing (Vanellus miles).

Derived terms: 60 terms
American golden plover, Bartramina plover, bastard plover, beach plover, black-bellied plover, black-breasted plover, blacksmith plover, black-winged plover, bull-head plover, calico plover, Caspian plover, chestnut-banded plover, collared plover, crab plover, crab-plover, double-banded plover, Egyptian plover, Eurasian golden plover, goggle-eyed plover, golden plover, grass plover, gray plover, grey plover, green plover, hill plover, Kentish plover, lark-plover, little ringed plover, Magellanic plover, masked plover, mountain plover, Norfolk plover, pied plover, piping plover, plovercrest, ploverlike, ploverness, plovery, quail-plover, ringed plover, ring plover, rock plover, sand plover, sea plover, semipalmated plover, shore plover, snowy plover, sociable plover, spurwing plover, spur-winged plover, St Helena plover, stone plover, Swiss plover, upland plover, whistling plover, white-crowned plover, white-tailed plover, Wilson's plover, wry-billed plover, yellow plover

plover

verb

Etymology Inherited from Middle English plover, from Anglo-Norman plover, plovier, from Medieval Latin plovarius, pluviārius, of disputed origin; perhaps from Latin pluvia (“rain”).

To dote over, or, crowd or nestle with

Invisible twine plying merchants are unravelling the long grasses and the plovering pull of the long windstrewngrasses pluck the prince in his chest his heart his passion and love as if no tomorrow.1997, Barry MacSweeney, The Book of Demons, page 107:
I would blanch, I would quail and, maybe in that season, I would have plovered — plovered my head deep into my feathers and plovered away on thin, wading bird's legs.2000, Stuart Jeffries, Mrs Slocombe's Pussy: Growing Up in Front of the Telly, page 144:

1 more example

Our Dove's a fat man's tits plovering a T - shirt;2002, Calvin Bedient, The Violence of the Morning: Poems, page 42:

To hunt for plover.

Gentlemen often came from Dublin, and payed me for going into the Channel with them a plovering and fishing, and going aboard of Ships in the Bay; but once among the rest, some of these Chaps came to hire my Smack, to go into the Bay, which I let them have to my Sorrow;1769, John Poulter, The Discoveries of John Poulter, Alias Baxter, page 5:
There is a handsome prospect from the plains, which render very good shooting in the season of plovering.1865, Henry Onderonk, Queens County in Olden Times, page 87:

1 more example

Brisler went Yesterday a plovering with a Party who killed about an hundred.1962, Diary and Autobiography of John Adam, page 244:

To wade along the shore, examining the sand like a plover does.

Men with nothing to do plovered the sand - edge with clam rakes that raked nothing.1971, John Ciardi, Lives of X., page 50:
Blathwyte indicates the scale of another population of waders through recording an annual crop of 250 Lapwing eggs Vanellus vanellus being taken by 'plovering' gamekeepers.2021, Clive Chatters, Heathland:

1 more example

If we can let the plovers do their plovering thing, then perhaps, instead of rejecting our human weirdnesses, we embrace them.2021, Jeffrey Cohen, Stephanie Foote, The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities, page 282: