Meanings
plural pigeon pairs
- Two siblings, one male and one female.
“He has two kiddies, a pigeon pair.”
1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 3733 more examples
Oh, please not twins! Just a pigeon-pair, a son and then a daughter.
2014, Colleen McCullough, Bittersweet, page 71Their first child, a son, was Albert Lewis, born 1893, and he became known to all of us who can remember this wonderful man, as Lew Davey. The second child was a daughter, Cora Annie, born 1895. […] There were two other children (both stillborn) and, to quote Lew, “It is sad to remember that what should have been a family of four, ended up a “pigeon pair”.
2014, Margaret Dwyer, Jewels Along The Newell, page 62“I 'ave a wife and pigeon pair,” he said. “What's a pigeon pair?” I asked him. “Don'cher know a pigeon pair? That's one of each. A pigeon pair, we calls it at 'ome.
2018, Tom Treanor, One Damn Thing After Another
Origin
From a folk belief that pigeons raise two eggs at the same time, a male and a female.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pigeon pair. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pigeon%20pair
“pigeon pair.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pigeon%20pair. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pigeon pair,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pigeon%20pair.
Source: pigeon pair on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.