Other forms: lapwings
A lapwing is a crested field bird with broad flapping wings. A flock of lapwings, the lapwing's crest, lapwings over the field.
It is also called the peewit from its call, and it feigns a broken wing to draw a predator away from the nest. The name comes from Old English words meaning to leap and to totter, from its floppy flight.
1nounlapwingA crested field bird with broad flapping wings.
“A lapwing circled over the ploughed field, crying loudly.”
lapwing is a bird.
Old English hleapewince joins words meaning to leap and to totter, from the bird's flight.
Old English
hlēapewince — lapwing
Middle English
lapwynge
English, today
lapwing
Built from
From Middle English lapwynge, lapwynke, lappewincke, lapwynche, lhapwynche, from Old English hlēapewince (“lapwing”), from Old English hlēapan (“to leap”) + wincian (“to wink, make a sign”), due to its manner of flight. Cognate with West Frisian ljip (“lapwing”). The modern form is influenced by folk etymology to resemble English wing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA