whippoorwill

plural whippoorwills · alternative whip-poor-will · alternative whippowill · alternative whip-o-will · alternative whip-o'-will

1. A nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus), a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call.

   “Seems like I heard a whippoorwill callinʼ, and I thought to myself, Go on away from here, weʼll whip ole Will when we find him.”

   1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55

2. The distinctive call of the above bird.

   The bird sang his whippoorwills all night.

   3 more examples

   From across the road a bird sang 'Whippoorwill, whippoorwill!'

   2023 December 12, Timothy C. Baker, Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories, MIT Press, →ISBN

   Somewhere in the darkness a few cold-sounding frogs lamented the lost summer, and the bird which the Chippewa called muck-a-wiss sang whippoorwill.

   1959, Thomas William Duncan, Big River, Big Man

   For I'm sure 'tis a bird that now sings 'Whippoorwill, Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill!'

   1857, Grace Greenwood, The Little Pilgrim, page 91