Definition of "cormorant"
cormorant
noun
plural cormorants
Any of various medium-large black seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae which dive into water for fish and other aquatic animals, found throughout the world except for islands in the centre of the Pacific Ocean; specifically, the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).
Quotations
Th' Eele-murthering Hearne, and greedy Cormorant, / That neare the Creekes in moriſh Marſhes haunt.
1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], 1st part, page 27
Thence up he [Satan] flew, and on the Tree of Life, / The middle Tree and higheſt there that grew, / Sat like a Cormorant; […]
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 194-196
I may mention, that I one day observed a cormorant playing with a fish which it had caught. Eight times successively the bird let its prey go, then dived after it, and although in deep water, brought it each time to the surface. […] I do not know of any other instance where dame Nature appears so wilfully cruel.
1839, Charles Darwin, chapter XII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], footnote †, page 256
These pictures were in water colours. […] One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam; […]
1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], page 242
(figuratively, also attributively, archaic or obsolete) A voracious eater; also, a person who, or thing which, is aggressively greedy for wealth, etc.
Quotations
In lyke maner who will nat haue in extreme detestation the insatiable gloteny of Vitellius, Fabius Gurges, Apicius, and dyuers other, to whiche carmorantes, neither lande, water, ne ayre, mought be sufficient.
1531, Thomas Elyot, “Of Sobrietie in Diete”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published , 3rd book, page 265
VVith eagre feeding foode doth choke the feeder, / Light vanitie inſatiate cormorant, / Conſuming meanes ſoone praies vpon it ſelfe: […]
1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, [Act II, scene i]
Let Fame, that all hunt after in their lyues, / Liue regiſtred vpon our brazen Tombes, / And then grace vs, in the diſgrace of death: / VVhen ſpight of cormorant deuouring Time, / Th[']endeavour of this preſent breath may buy: / That honour vvhich ſhall bate his ſythes keene edge, / And make vs heires of all eternitie.
c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [Act I, scene i]
Should by the Cormorant belly be reſtrain'd, / VVho is the ſinke a th'body.
c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i], page 2, column 1
Surfetters, and Cormorants he compared to beasts voyd of reason.Although Raleigh is named as the author on the title page of the work, it is doubted that he is the author.
1637, attributed to Walter Raleigh, The Life and Death of Mahomet, the Conquest of Spaine, together with the Rysing and Ruine of the Sarazen Empire, London: […] R[alph] H[odgkinson] for Daniel Frere, […], page 145
VVhy, vvhat a Cormorant in Love am I! vvho not contented vvith the ſlavery of honourable Love in one place, and the pleaſure of enjoying ſome half a ſcore Miſtreſſes of my ovvn acquiring; muſt yet take Vainlove’s Buſineſs upon my hands, becauſe it lay too heavy upon his: […]
1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Peter Buck, […], Act I, page 4
His treaſur’d ſtores theſe Cormorants conſume, / VVhoſe bones, defrauded of a regal tomb / And common turf, lie naked on the plain, / Or doom’d to vvelter in the vvhelming main.
1725, Homer, “Book I”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, page 26, lines 207–210
She had discovered, within a short time, that doctors were not the cormorants (often ignorant, but always insatiable) she had supposed them to be, and that certain causes produced certain effects;...
1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 126
adjective
comparative more cormorant, superlative most cormorant
(archaic or obsolete) Voracious; aggressively greedy.
Quotations