1. Love of learning and literature; the branch of knowledge that deals with the historical, linguistic, interpretative, and critical aspects of literature; literary or classical scholarship. Now chiefly U.S.
By the late 19th cent. this general sense had become rare, but it was revived, principally in the United States, in the early 20th cent. For a fuller discussion of this, see A. Morpurgo Davies Hist. Linguistics (1998) 4 I. 22.

1522 J. SKELTON Why come ye nat to Court in Compl. Eng. Poems (1983) 292 Nor of philosophy, Nor of philology, Nor of good pollycy, Nor of astronomy. 1612 J. SELDEN in M. Drayton Poly-olbion I. Pref. sig. A4, This later age..hath, in our greatest Latine Critiques..so receiued that Saturnian Language, that, to Students in Philology, it is now grown familiar. a1661 T. FULLER Worthies (1662) I. 26 Philology properly is Terse and Polite Learning, melior literatura... But we take it in the larger notion, as inclusive of all human liberal Studies. 1669 T. GALE Court of Gentiles: Pt. I I. I. x. 50 Philologie, according to its original, and primitive import..implies an universal love, or respect to human Literature. 1702 C. MATHER Magnalia Christi II. v. 18/1 Such Philology as that of Suidas and Hesychius. 1776 G. CAMPBELL Philos. of Rhetoric I. I. v. 150 All the branches of philology, such as history, civil, ecclesiastic, and literary; grammar, languages, jurisprudence, and criticism. 1818 H. HALLAM View Europe Middle Ages IX. ii, Philology, or the principles of good taste, degenerated through the prevalence of school-logic. 1892 Athenæum 25 June 816/1 The fact that philology is not a mere matter of grammar, but is in the largest sense a master-science, whose duty is to present to us the whole of ancient life, and to give archæology its just place by the side of literature. 1922 O. JESPERSEN Lang. iii. 64 In this book I shall use the word ‘philology’ in its continental sense, which is often rendered in English by the vague word ‘scholarship’, meaning thereby the study of the specific culture of one nation. 1947 E. H. STURTEVANT Introd. Ling. Sci. i. 7 Philology is a word with a wide range of meaning. I use it here to designate the study of written documents. 1980 Yale Rev. Winter 312 Philology meant, and still ought to mean, the general study of literature. 2004 Hispanic Rev. 72 442 The bewildering intertextuality that has become the very essence of modern philology.

1623 H. COCKERAM Eng. Dict., Phylologie, loue of much babling. 1654 R. WHITLOCK 195 Whereas hee [sc. Seneca] complaineth Philosophy was turned into Philology; may not we too sadly complain, most of our Christianity is become Discoursive noise? 1678 R. L'ESTRANGE tr. Epistles iii. 20 in Seneca's Morals Abstracted (1679), By which means, Philosophy is now turn'd to Philology.

3. The branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of languages or language families; the historical study of the phonology and morphology of languages; historical linguistics. See also comparative philology at COMPARATIVE adj. 1b.
This sense has never been current in the United States, and is increasingly rare in British use. Linguistics is now the more usual term for the study of the structure of language, and (often with qualifying adjective, as historical, comparative, etc.) has generally replaced philology.

1716 M. DAVIES Athenæ Britannicæ III. 102 Harduin has there several erudite Remarks upon Philology: especially upon the Pronunciation and Dialects of the Greek Tongue. 1749 D. HARTLEY Observ. Man I. iii. 353 Philology, or the Knowledge of Words, and their Significations. 1816 J. GILCHRIST Philos. Etymol. p. vii, Whether that gentleman shall choose a lexicographic department in the field of philology. 1838 W. B. WINNING (title) Manual of comparative philology. 1852 J. S. BLACKIE On Stud. Lang. 7 Philology unfolds the genesis of those laws of speech, which Grammar contemplates as a finished result. 1902 L. MEAD Word-coinage vi, Professor Bréal has blazed the way for future explorers in the wilderness of philology. 1964 R. H. ROBINS Gen. Ling. i. 6 In British usage philology is generally equivalent to comparative philology, an older and still quite common term for what linguists technically refer to as comparative and historical linguistics. 2002 Isis 93 503/1 The Leipzig neogrammarian philologists, who rejected Indo-European philology for a universal science of language.

1. a. A bird of the genus Corvus; in England commonly applied to the Carrion Crow (Corvus Corone), ‘a large black bird that feeds upon the carcasses of beasts’ (Johnson); in the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland to the Rook, C. frugilegus; in U.S. to a closely allied gregarious species, C. americanus.

a700 Epinal Gloss. 241 Cornacula, crauuae. a800 Erfurt Gl. 308 Cornix, crauua. a800 Corpus Gl. 401 Carula, crauue. Ibid. 538 Cornix, crawe. c1000 SPELMAN Psalms (Trin. MS.) cxlvi. 10 (Bosw.) Se selnytenum mete heora, and briddum crawan ciendum hine. a1250 Owl & Night. 1130 Pinnuc goldfinch rok ne crowe Ne dar ar never cumen. c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 437/196 Blake foule..Ase it crowene and rokes weren. 1382 WYCLIF Gen. viii. 7 Noe..sente out a crow. 1486 Bk. St. Albans Dija, A Roke or a Crow or a Reuyn. 1553 EDEN Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 17 The Priestes take the meete that is left, and geue it to the crowes to eate. 1575 CHURCHYARD Chippes (1817) 108 They wysht at home they had bene keping crooes. 1605 SHAKES. Macb. III. ii. 51 Light thickens, and the Crow Makes Wing toth' Rookie Wood. 1766 PENNANT Zool. (1812) I. 284 Rooks are sociable birds, living in vast flocks: crows go only in pairs. 1817-18 COBBETT Resid. U.S. (1822) 210 They keep in flocks, like rooks (called crows in America). 1842 TENNYSON Locksley Hall 68 As the many-winter'd crow that leads the clanging rookery home. 1885 SWAINSON Prov. Names Birds 86 Crow is common to rook and carrion crow alike.

1592 GREENE Groats-w. Wit Addr., There is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers. a1640 DAY Peregr. Schol. Wks. (1881) 57 The devill..sends his black Crowe, Anger, to plucke out his ey. 1649 G. DANIEL Trinarch., Rich. II, xxxvi, The Citty Crowes Assemble, and Resolve they would keep out..his ragged rout.

2. With qualifications, as hooded, Kentish, or Royston crow, Corvus Cornix; red-legged crow, C. Graculus; fish crow of America, C. ossifragus or C. caurinus; CARRION-CROW, etc.; also applied to birds outside the genus or family, as mire crow, sea crow, names for Larus ridibundus; scare crow, the Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigra); blue crow, a crow-like jay of N. America, Gymnocitta cyanocephala; piping crows, the birds of the sub-family Gymnorhininæ or Streperinæ; and others.

1611 COTGR., Corneille emmentelée, the Winter-crow, whose backe and bellie are of a darke ash-colour: we call her a Royston Crow. 1766 PENNANT Zool. (1812) I. 286 In England hooded crows are birds of passage. 1844 W. H. MAXWELL Sports & Adv. Scotl. (1855) 326 The Laughing Gull..or Black Head..The inhabitants of Orkney call it the ‘sea crow’; and in some places it is called the ‘mire-crow’. 1875 W. M^CILWRAITH Guide Wigtownshire, These cliffs are frequented by the Cornish chough or red-legged crow.

3. a. In phrases and proverbial sayings, as as black as a crow, the crow thinks its own bird fairest (or white), etc. a white crow: i.e. a rara avis. to eat (boiled) crow (U.S. colloq.): to be forced to do something extremely disagreeable and humiliating.

1297 R. GLOUC. (1724) 490 So suart so eni crowe amorwe is fot was. c1386 CHAUCER Knt.'s T. 1834 As blak he lay as any cole or crowe. 1513 DOUGLAS Æneis IX. Prol. 78 The blak craw thinkis hir awin byrdis quhite. 1536 LATIMER 2nd Serm. bef. Convoc. Wks. I. 40 A proverb much used: ‘An evil crow, an evil egg.’ 1579 GOSSON Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 30 For any chaste liuer to haunt them was a black swan, and a white crowe. 1579 FULKE Confut. Sanders 675 He triumpheth like a crow in a gutter. 1621-51 BURTON Anat. Mel. III. i. II. ii. 421 Every Crow thinks her own bird fairest. 1684 BUNYAN Pilgr. II. 98 As fruitful a place, as any the Crow flies over. 1843 ‘R. CARLTON’ New Purchase II. 235 The rara avisthe white crowa good President. [1851 San Francisco Picayune 3 Dec. 1/6, I kin eat a crow, but I'll be darned if I hanker after it.] 1872 Daily News 31 July, Both [are]..in the curious slang of American politics, ‘boiled crow’ to their adherents. 1877 N. & Q. 5th Ser. VIII. 186/1 A newspaper editor, who is obliged..to advocate ‘principles’ different from those which he supported a short time before, is said to ‘eat boiled crow’. 1884 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Lett. (1917) II. 443 Warner and Clark are eating their daily crow in the paper. 1885 Mag. Amer. Hist. XIII. 199 ‘To eat crow’ means to recant, or to humiliate oneself. 1930 ‘E. QUEEN’ French Powder Myst. xxiv. 196, I should merely be making an ass of myself if I accused someone and then had to eat crow. 1970 New Yorker 17 Oct. 39/1, I was going to apologize, eat crow, offer to kiss and make up.

b. to have a crow to pluck or pull (rarely pick) with any one: to have something disagreeable or awkward to settle with him; to have a matter of dispute, or something requiring explanation, to clear up; to have some fault to find with him. Formerly also, to pluck or pull a crow with one or together.

c1460 Towneley Myst. xviii. 311 Na, na, abide, we haue a craw to pull. 1509 BARCLAY Shyp of Folys (1570) 91 A wrathfull woman..He that her weddeth hath a crowe to pull. 1590 SHAKES. Com. Err. III. i. 83 If a crow help vs in, sirra, wee'll plucke a crow together. 1662 PEPYS Diary 18 Nov., He and I very kind, but I every day expect to pull a crow with him about our lodgings. 1668 R. L'ESTRANGE Vis. Quev. (1708) 159 We have a Crow to pluck with these Fellows, before we part. 1849 Tait's Mag. XVI. 385/1 If there be ‘a crow to pluck’ between us and any contemporary, we shall make a clean breast of it at once.

c. as the crow flies, etc.: in a direct line, without any of the détours caused by following the road.

1800 SOUTHEY Lett. (1856) I. 110 About fifteen miles, the crow's road. 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 152 The distance..is upwards of twenty-five miles as the crow flies. 1838 DICKENS O. Twist xxv, We cut over the fields..straight as the crow flies. 1873 F. HALL in Scribner's Monthly VI. 468/2 It was full eight miles, measured by the crow, to the spot.

d. Colloq. phr. stone (or stiffen) the crows: an exclamation of surprise or disgust. Esp. Austral.

1930 L. W. LOWER Here's Luck xxvii. 242 ‘Stone the crows!’ stormed Stanley. 1934 B. PENTON Landtakers (1935) II. iii. 120 ‘Gawd stiffen the crows,’ Bill commented bitterly. 1938 J. MOSES Nine Miles from Gundagai 82 Stone the crows, what's up, mate? Has Australia got the blues? 1948 C. DAY LEWIS Otterbury Incident iv. 46 Cor stone the crows, 'ave a 'eart, young gents. 1953 J. C. TRENCH Docken Dead iii. 46 Cor stone the crows, he thought, this could go on till Christmas.

1658 in PHILLIPS. 1868 LOCKYER Heavens (ed. 3) 326 Towards the horizon, are distinguished the Balance, the Crow, and the Cup.

5. a. A bar of iron usually with one end slightly bent and sharpened to a beak, used as a lever or prise; a CROW-BAR.

a1400 St. Erkenwolde 71 in Horstm. Alteng. Leg. Ser. II. 267 Wyt werke-men..Putten prises er-to..Kaghtene by e corners w^t crowes of yrne. 1458 in Turner Dom. Archit. III. 42 Than crafti men for the querry made crowes of yre. 1555 EDEN Decades 333 Longe crowes of iren to lyfte great burdens. 1590 SHAKES. Com. Err. III. i. 80 Well, Ile breake in: go borrow me a crow. 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 755 The Mine-men do often strike such forcible strokes with a great Iron-crow. 1793 SMEATON Edystone Lighth. §206 To detach the stone with an iron Crow. c1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 113 Crows are of various sorts; some are opened at the end, with a claw for drawing nails. 1888 RIDER HAGGARD Col. Quaritch xl, Driving the sharp point of the heavy crow into the rubble work.

1573 TUSSER Husb. (1878) 98 Get crowe made of iron, deepe hole for to make. 1574 R. SCOT Hop Gard. (1578) 19 Set vp your Poales preparing theyr waye wyth a Crowe of Iron. 1626 A. SPEED Adam out of E. xv. (1659) 111 About the body of the Trees make many holes with a crow of Iron. 1731-7 MILLER Gard. Dict. s.v. Vitis, Having an iron Crow..a little pointed at the End, they therewith make an Hole directly down.

1553 BRENDE Q. Curtius 54 (R.) Certeine instrumentes wherewyth they myght pull downe the workes y^t their enemyes made, called Harpagons, and also crowes of iron called Corvi. 1614 SYLVESTER Bethulia's Rescue 110 Having in vain summon'd the Town; he..Brings here his Fly-Bridge, there his batt'ring Crow. 1632 J. HAYWARD tr. Biondi's Eromena 150 Iron Wolves and Crows to graspe the Ram withall. 1727-51 CHAMBERS Cycl., Crow, in the sea-language, a machine with an iron hook, for fastening hold, and grappling with the enemies vessel. 1873 BURTON Hist. Scot. V. liii. 34 Their siege-apparatus consisted of ladders with ‘craws’ or clamps of iron to catch the angles of the trap-rock.

7. An ancient kind of door-knocker. Obs. [med.L. cornix, Erasmus Colloq., Puerpera.]

1579 Churchw. Acc. Stanford in Antiquary Apr. (1888) 171 For..mending ye perchell and the Crowe. a1632 E. FAIRFAX Eclogue iv. (in E. Cooper Muses Libr.), Now clad in white I see my porter-crow. 1637 N. WHITING Albino & Bell. 22 Who..Knockt at the wicket with the iron crow To whose small neck white phillets here were tyde Which in more ancient dayes did child-bed show. 1846 R. CHAMBERS Tradit. Edin. 200 Hardly one specimen of the pin, crow, or ringle now survives in the Old Town.

1851 MAYHEW Lond. Labour (1861) iv. 286 (Farmer) If anyone should be near, the ‘crow’ gives a signal, and they decamp. 1862 Cornh. Mag. VI. 648 (Farmer) Occasionally they [women] assist at a burglaryremaining outside and keeping watch; they are then called crows.

1888 J. BRADSHAW N.Z. of To-day ix. 171 When harvest came..he ought to have taken his place as ‘crow’ upon the stack. 1913 A. I. CARR Country Work & Life in N.Z. v. 11 A ‘crow’..whose work consists of passing the fork-fulls thrown up by the carter to the stacker. 1956 J. DARE Rouseabout Jane xxiv. 185 When it came to stacking the corn, my job was to be ‘crow’.

c. slang. A derogatory name for a girl or woman, esp. one who is old or ugly; freq. in phr. old crow.

1925 ‘H. H. RICHARDSON’ Way Home (1930) vi. 477 It makes me feel a proper old crow. 1938 RUNYON Take it Easy 27 She is by no means a crow. In fact, she is rather nice-looking. 1957 R. C. SHERRIFF Telescope II. i. 56 Mayfield. There's an old lady named Miss Fortescue... Ben (laughing). Coo!I know that old crow.

1610 B. JONSON Alch. II. ii, These bleard-eyes Haue wak'd, to reade your generall colours, Sir, Of the pale citron, the greene lyon, the crow. Ibid. II. iii, What colour saies it? Fac. The ground black, Sir? Mam. That's your crowes-head?

10. Mining. Used attrib. to denote a poor or impure bed of coal, limestone, etc.; e.g. in crow bed, chert, coal, lime(stone. (Cf. crow-gold in 11.) north. and Sc.

1789 J. WILLIAMS Min. Kingd. (1810) I. 62 What is meant by the crawcoal is the crop-coal..which is always supposed to be a thin one. 1836 J. PHILLIPS Illustr. Geol. Yorksh. II. 66 Thus we have Crow chert, Crow limestone, Crow lime. 1852 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIII. I. 208 Small beds of the kind called crow coal (only useful for burning lime).

11. Comb., as crow-scaring; crow-like adj. and adv.; crow-bait colloq. (orig. U.S.) = crows'-meat; spec. an old or worn-out horse; crow-bird, a young crow; crow-blackbird (U.S.), a name for the Purple Grackle (Quiscalus purpureus), and allied species; crow-boy, a boy employed to scare crows away; crow-coal (see 10 above); crow-corn, a name for the North American plant Aletris farinosa; crow-cup = CROW-STONE; crow-eater (Australian colloq.), ‘a lazy fellow who will live on anything rather than work’ (Lentzner); also, a South Australian; crow-fig, the berry of the nux vomica tree; crow-flight, -fly, a direct course, a straight line (cf. sense 3c); also quasi-adv.; crow-gold (see quot.); crow-herd, a person employed to guard corn-fields from rooks; crow-hole, a hole made with an iron crow; crow-iron, a crow-bar; crow-keeper = crow-herd; also a scare-crow; crow-line, the straight line of a crow's flight; crows'-meat, food for crows, carrion; crow-minder = crow-herd; crow-needle, the Umbelliferous plant Scandix Pecten; crow-net, a net for catching crows and other birds; crowpeck(s, -pickes (see quots.); crow-pheasant, a large bird of India and China, Centropus sinensis; crow-pick v. trans., to inspect (coal) and free it from stones and rubbish; hence crow-picker; crow-purse, a local name for the empty egg-case of the skate (also Mermaid's-purse); crow-sheaf (Cornwall), ‘the top sheaf on the end of a mow’; crow-shrike, a bird of the sub-family Gymnorhininæ or Piping Crows; crow-spike, a crow-bar; crow-starving, the keeping of rooks from cornfields; crow-tree, a tree in a rookery. See also CROW-BAR to CROW-TREAD.

1857 Spirit of Times 14 Feb. 382/1 He had a ole ball-face, bob-tail rip, jest' 'bout fit for *crow-bait. 1860 Marysville (Calif.) Appeal 25 Mar. 2/1 For many moments did the teamster ‘cuss’ and belabor his crow-baits. 1884 Harper's Mag. Oct. 738/2 ‘Drivin' a black hossa reg'lar crowbate.’ a1910 ‘O. HENRY’ Trimmed Lamp 73, I think I like your horses best. I haven't seen a crowbait since I've been in town. 1920 J. M. HUNTER Trail Drivers of Texas 98 At this I..rounded up my ‘crow bait’ and pulled out for home. 1957 A. MACNAB Bulls of Iberia xiii. 141 He rode out to do the réjon act on an ancient crowbait borrowed from the picadors' stable.

a1300 E.E. Psalter cxlvi. 9 (Mätz.) Mete..to *crawe briddes [L. pullis corvorum] him kalland.

1778 J. CARVER Travels 473 The *crow blackbird..is quite black. 1870 LOWELL Study Wind. (1886) 13 Twice have the crow-blackbirds attempted a settlement in my vines.

1868 Lond. Rev. 28 Nov. 591/2 She warns off comely women from the premises as her *crow-boy does birds from the newly-sown field.

1899 Daily News 13 Sept. 7/5 ‘The land of the *crow-eater’ was at no time a convict settlement. 1902 J. H. M. ABBOTT Tommy Cornstalk 2 It may have been that, to the early South Australians, means of subsistence came not easily. At any rate they are called ‘Crow-eaters’. 1934 Crow-eater [see BANANALAND]. 1967 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 25 July 2 The ‘Crow-Eaters’ have bustled ahead and watched industrialisation transform their once sleepy-hollow State.

1778 *Crow fig [see NUX VOMICA]. 1830 Oxford Jrnl. 30 Oct. 3 He struck her; which exasperated the poor woman so much as to induce her to poison herself with crow~fig. 1895 BLOXAM Chem. (ed. 8) 760 Nux-vomica, or crow~fig, contains about 1 per cent of strychnine.

1875 G. M. HOPKINS Let. 20 Feb. (1935) 30 A long *crow-flight is between us. 1885 Science 7 Aug. 108/2 We clambered over the hills and spurs in the usual crow-flight of the Karens. 1964 Economist 17 Oct. 258/1 The road..runs crow-flight straight.

1846 Wesleyan Methodist Mag. Jan. 53/1 It lies..east..at a direct distance, *crow-fly, of about eighty miles. 1929 T. E. LAWRENCE Home Lett. (1954) 376 To get to Plymouth (only 300 yards crow-fly) is four and a half miles of bad road!

1878 F. S. WILLIAMS Midl. Railw. 370 A bed of chalk, almost like clay, containing many pyrites, locally [at Charlton] termed *crow-gold.

1805 FORSYTH Beauties Scotl. II. 86 Many farmers are under the necessity of keeping *crowherds.

1817 Blackw. Mag. I. 637/2 One of those blocks is so large..that four men with two *crow-irons could not turn it out.

1562 J. HEYWOOD Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 211 Thers no *crowe keeper but thou. 1592 SHAKES. Rom. & Jul. I. iv. 6 Skaring the Ladies like a Crow-keeper. c1626 Dick of Devon II. iv. in Bullen Old Pl. II. 38 Sure these can be no Crowkeepers nor birdscarers from the fruite!

1616-61 B. HOLYDAY Persius (1673) 323 Hoarsly *crow-like caw'st out some idle thing.

1681 OTWAY Soldier's Fort. III. i, He shall be *Crows Meats by to-morrow Night.

1837 H. MARTINEAU Soc. Amer. III. 330 A little *crow-minder, hoarse from his late occupation, came in.

1733 W. ELLIS Chiltern & Vale Farming xxxvii. 301 *Crow-Needle, bears a white Flower, about half the height of the Corn. 1881 H. & C. R. SMITH Isle of Wight Words 46 Crow-needles, Scandix Pecten.

1620 J. WILKINSON Courts Leet 124 In every parish and tything..a *crow-net provided to kill and destroy crowes, rookes, and choughes.

1870 Ibis VI. 234 Among the bamboo-copses and gardens around Kiungchowfoo, and all other towns in Hainan, the *Crow-Pheasant was abundant. 1878 P. ROBINSON In my Indian Garden 7 The crow pheasant stalks past with his chestnut wings drooping by his side. 1883 ‘EHA’ Tribes on my Frontier 155 That ungainly object the coucal, crow-pheasant, jungle-crow, or whatever else you like to call the miscellaneous thing. 1964 A. L. THOMSON New Dict. Birds 171/2 C[entropus] sinensis, commonly known in India as the Crow-pheasant, is a large black bird with chestnut wings.

1609 C. BUTLER Fem. Mon. vi. (1623) Oiij, Barbery, *Crowpickes, Charlocke, Rosemary. 1794 J. DAVIS Agric. Wilts (1813) Gloss., Crowpeck, Shepherd's purse. 1886 BRITTEN & HOLL. Plant-n., Crowpecks, Scandix Pecten. Hants.

1920 Glasgow Herald 13 May 6 To *crow-pick each hutch as it passes the steelyard. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §047 *Crow picker; inspects shale in mine before it is loaded, to see that only clean shale is loaded. 1922 Glasgow Herald 12 July 10 Frae crawpickers that craw us O' hauf oor hardwon rakes;..Deliver us, O Lord!

1693 WALLACE Orkney 18 On the shore is to be found..also that which they call the *Crow-Purse: which is a pretty work of Nature.

1897 Daily News 15 Jan. 6/1 His first employment was *crow-scaring. 1933 W. DE LA MARE Lord Fish 40 He had taken up crow-scaring at seven.

1692 LUTTRELL Brief Rel. (1857) II. 456 Great quantities of warlike preparations, as..pickaxes, shovells, *crow spikes, etc.

1848 C. BRONTË J. Eyre xv. (D.), I like Thornfield, its antiquity, its retirement, its old *crow-trees and thorn-trees.

crow's ash n. Austral. a rainforest tree, Flindersia australis (family Rutaceae), found in parts of eastern Australia and having a scaly bark and prickly woody fruits; (also) the timber of this tree, which is hard, yellowish, and oily.

1852 J. D. LANG Hist. Acct. New S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 71 The casks are made of various sorts of indigenous timber, called the silky oak, the spotted gum, and the *crow's-ash; of which the first mentioned is the best. 1903 Austral. Handbk. 279 Other orders..furnish..large-sized timber, particularly the following:..‘Crow's Ash’ (Flindersia australis). 1949 F. N. HOWES Veg. Gums & Resins vi. 75 F. australis, (‘cudgerie’ or ‘crow's ash’)..yields a similar gum and that of F. bennetiana is also water-soluble. 1999 Westside News (Brisbane) 13 Oct. 1/2 Bunya pine, crows ash, figs, tuckeroos and melaleuca trees in the park had been spiked with metal rods to prevent them being chain sawed to the ground to make way for the bypass.

Originally a sound or letter that had to be accompanied by a vowel: hence the term (Latin consonans ‘sounding with’). Now generally of phonological units which form parts of a syllable other than its nucleus (2) , or whose primary role, at least, is ...

A term in general use and in phonetics for both a SPEECH sound that is distinct from a CONSONANT (also vowel sound ) and the LETTER of the ALPHABET that represents such a speech sound (also vowel letter ). In general usage, the distinction between ...

A union of two vowels pronounced in one syllable; the combination of a sonantal with a consonantal vowel.
The latter is usually one of the two vowels i and u, the extremes of the vowel scale, which pass into the consonants y, w. When these sounds, called by Melville Bell glides, follow the sonantal vowel, the combination is called a ‘falling diphthong’, as in out, how, boil, boy; when they precede, the combination is a ‘rising diphthong’, as in It. uovo, piano. It is common in the latter case to consider the first element as the consonant w or y.

1483 Cath. Angl. 100/2 A Diptonge [MS. A. Dypton], diptongus. 1530 PALSGR. 213/2 Diphthonge, diphthongue. a1637 B. JONSON Eng. Gram. v, Dipthongs are the complexions, or couplings of Vowells. 1668 WILKINS Real Char. 15 I and u according to our English pronunciation of them, are not properly Vowels, but Diphthongs. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 9 All Dipthongs are naturally long. But in English Numbers they are often short. 1876 C. P. MASON Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) §17 When two vowel sounds are uttered without a break between them, we get what is called a vocal or sonant diphthong. 1888 J. WRIGHT O.H. German Prim. §10 All the OHG. diphthongs..were falling diphthongs; that is, the stress fell upon the first of the two elements. 1892 SWEET New Eng. Gram. 230 If two vowels are uttered with one impulse of stress, so as to form a single syllable, the combination is called a diphthong, such as (oi) in oil.

b. Often applied to a combination of two vowel characters, more correctly called DIGRAPH¹.
When the two letters represent a simple sound, as ea, ou, in head (h

d), soup (su

p), they have been termed an improper diphthong: properly speaking these are monophthongs written by digraphs.

1530 PALSGR. 15 This diphthong ou..in the frenche tong shalbe sounded lyke as the Italians sounde this vowell u. c1620 A. HUME Brit. Tongue (1865) 10 We have of this thre diphthonges, tuae with a befoer, ae and ai, and ane with the e befoer, ea. 1668 PRICE in A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. I. iii. (Chaucer Soc.) 125 That is an improper dipthong that loseth the sound of one vowel. There are eight improper dipthongs, ea ee ie eo, ea oo ui, ou obscure as in cousin. 1876 C. P. MASON Eng. Gram. (ed. 21) §17 When two of the letters called vowels are written together to represent either a sonant diphthong or a simple vowel sound, we get a written diphthong or digraph. Ibid. §25 The same letter or diphthong often represents very different vowel sounds.

c. esp. In popular use, applied to the ligatures æ, of the Roman alphabet.
As pronounced in later L., and in modern use, these are no longer diphthongs, but monophthongs; the OE. ligatures æ and always represented monophthongs.

1587 HARRISON England II. xix. (1877) I. 312 Waldæne with a diphthong. 1631 WEEVER Anc. Fun. Mon. To Rdr. Aij, I write the Latine..as I find it..E vocall for E diphthong, diphthongs being but lately come into use. 1702 ADDISON Dial. Medals (1727) 20 We find that Felix is never written with an

dipthongue. 1756-7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 222 The epitaph, in which the dipthong æ, according to the custom of those times, is expressed by a single e..Vitam obiit VII Id. Oct. etatis sue ann. I. & L.

d. transf. Applied to a combination of two consonants in one syllable (consonantal diphthong), especially to such intimate unions as those of ch (t

) and dg or j (d

), in church, judge.

1862 M. HOPKINS Hawaii 65 The Hawaiian alphabet..is..destitute of consonant diphthongs. 1889 PITMAN Man. Phonogr. (new ed.) §64 The simple articulations p, b, t, d, etc. are often closely united with the liquids l and r, forming a kind of consonant diphthong..as in plough..try.