Pigeon Meaning
/ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounOne of several birds of the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes.
nounThe meat from this bird.
Sentence Examples
The pigeon and the ostrich are both birds; one can fly and the other cannot.
In other words, the field of the magnet is near the pigeon's head.
In the evening my pigeon returned to me wounded seriously.
CEFR Practice Quiz
A gray ____ with red eyes pecked at bread crumbs on the ground.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ landed on the windowsill and pecked at the crumbs left from the morning's breakfast.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Latin pīpiō Proto-Indo-European *-ōder. Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.? Latin -ō Latin pipio Old French pyjonbor. Middle English pygeoun English pigeon Inherited from Middle English pygeoun, borrowed from Old French pyjon, inherited from Late Latin pīpiōnem (“chirping bird”), derived from Latin pīpiāre (“to chirp”), of imitative origin. Partly displaced native English dove.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Kalb rushed to the airport and found a "pigeon" to take out the film: an American woman headed for London."
— 1989, Whitman Bassow, The Moscow Correspondents, page 214:
"At this point, all the commercial airports in Pakistan were closed. The only way to get film out was over land. John promptly hired me to be what was then known in the business as a "Pigeon," and installed me in a comfortable room in his hotel. […] I would then hand-carry his film out of the country, via Peshawar, the Khyber Pass, through the Kabul Gorge, and up to Kabul, Afghanistan, where I would meet a BBC courier and transfer the film bag."
— 2021, Hilary Brown, War Tourist: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
A gray ____ with red eyes pecked at bread crumbs on the ground.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ landed on the windowsill and pecked at the crumbs left from the morning's breakfast.