cormorant

From Old French cormaran (modern cormoran), from Medieval Latin corvus marīnus (literally “sea-raven”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹməɹənt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːməɹənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

cormorant (plural cormorants)

1. Any of various medium-large black seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, especially the great cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo.
   • 1876, "Burmah" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 552:

     Aquatic birds of various kinds are very numerous, such as geese, darters (Flotus melanogaster), scissor-bills (Rhynchops nigra), adjutants (Leptoptilos argala), pelicans, cormorants, cranes (Grus antigone, in Burmese gyoja), whimbrels, plovers, and ibises.

2. A voracious eater; a glutton.
   • Alexander Pope (translator), The Odyssey

     When for the dear delight another pays, / His treasured stores those cormorants consume […]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

• (voracious eater): see Thesaurus:glutton

cormorant (comparative more cormorant, superlative most cormorant)

1. Ravenous, greedy.
   • William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, Scene 1

     Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

     Live regist'red upon our brazen tombs,

     And then grace us in the disgrace of death;

     When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,

     The endeavour of this present breath may buy

     That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,

     And make us heirs of all eternity.

• shag