redbreast

R1E1D2B3R1E1A1S1T1

noun

A European robin, Erithacus rubecula.

Similar
robinrobin redbreastOld World robinErithacus rubecolaErithacus rubecula
RareScrabble 12

Meanings

nounredbreast (plural redbreasts)

plural redbreasts

  1. Any of several unrelated birds that have a red breast.
    1. A European robin, Erithacus rubecula.

      I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

      1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281
      1 more example

      There was a pleasant frosty sun glittering through the twigs of the leafless shrubs, and flashing on the ripples and undulations of the Liffey, and the redbreasts and sparrows were picking up the crumbs which the housekeeper had thrown for them outside.

      1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, and There Read a Paragraph in an Old Newspaper”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 17

Synonyms & antonyms

nounsmall Old World songbird with a reddish breast

Similar
robinrobin redbreastOld World robinErithacus rubecolaErithacus rubecula
Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishredbreste
  2. Englishredbreast

From Middle English redbreste, equivalent to red + breast.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Dutch roodborst
  • roodborstbird with a red breast
Welsh brongoch, bronrhuddyn
  • brongochbird with a red breast
  • bronrhuddynbird with a red breast
Cite this entry
APA

redbreast. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbreast

MLA

“redbreast.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbreast. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “redbreast,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbreast.

Source: redbreast on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.