ibis

plural ibises · plural ibides · plural ibes

1. Any of various long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, having long downcurved bills used to probe the mud for prey such as crustaceans.

   It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Loomings”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 4

   2 more examples

   He told him of the red ibises, who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold-fish in their beaks [...] and of the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the butterflies.

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 30

   There were thousands upon thousands of white cockatoos flying around the trees alongside the river, and I had my first glimpse of that strange bird the ibis, with its long skinny legs and graceful neck.

   1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 21

1. pluralplural of IBI

1. abbreviationinitialismartsInitialism of in-body image stabilization, in which stabilization mechanisms are built into the camera (phone) body rather than the lens.