merlin

plural merlins · alternative marlin · alternative marlion · alternative marlyon · alternative merline · alternative merlion · alternative merlon

1. A small falcon, Falco columbarius, that breeds in northern North America, Europe, and Asia.

   Smaller and less powerful falcons included the merlon, the hobby, and the kesterel.

   1991, Thomas S. Henricks, “Sport in Feudal England”, in Disputed Pleasures: Sport and Society in Preindustrial England (Contributions to the Study of World History; 28), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 23

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   The gentle falcon, that with its feet distraineth / The kingës hand; the hardy sperhawke eke, / The quailës foe; the merlion that paineth / Himself full oft the larkë for to seek; [...]

   [c. 1381–1382, Geoffrey Chaucer, Parlement of Foules; republished as “The Assembly of Fowls”, in D[avid] Laing Purves, editor, The Canterbury Tales and Faerie Queene: With Other Poems of Chaucer and Spenser. […], Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1874, →OCLC, page 220, column 2

   Synonyms: pigeon hawk

1. uncountablebiochemistryA cytoskeletal protein active in the suppression of tumors.

   Synonyms: schwannomin

plural Merlins

1. A wizard in the Arthurian legend.

   Music, art, entertainment, medicine, and science are being changed before our very eyes by technological Merlins waving silicon wands.

   2007, Clyde Freeman Herreid, “Teaching in the Year 2061”, in Clyde Freeman Herreid, editor, Start with a Story: The Case Study Method of Teaching College Science, Arlington, Va.: NSTA Press, →ISBN, section XX (The Future of Case Teaching), page 429

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   I NEXT paſſed into the choir; a ſcene of transformation indeed! I had been accuſtomed to contemplate here a far different order of things. Our profeſſional Merlins have waved their wands to ſome purpoſe; and all view, as their familiars invited me to believe, was to be given up to the momentary glance at an Eidophuſicon ſhew of the Reſurrection filling the Eaſt window in that ſpot late our Lady’s chapel, now the termination of the choir.

   1803 December, an Architect, “The Pursuits of Architectural Innovation. No. LXVI. Salisbury Cathedral continued.”, in The Gentleman’s Magazine, London: […] Nichols and Son, […], page 1122, column 1

   It is a game of chemistry and confidence, where players of gold often make teams of lead, and vice versa. Coaches are like Merlins madly mixing metals, searching for “the right combination,” even if it contradicts common sense.

   1978 December 29, Thomas Boswell, “Carr Discovers Mysteries of NBA”, in International Herald Tribune, number 29,827, Paris, published 5 January 1979, page 11, column 4

2. A male given name.
3. A census-designated place in Josephine County, Oregon, United States.