redshank

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English[edit]

a spotted redshank
(Tringa erythropus)
redshank moss
(Ceratodon purpureus)
lady's thumb or redshank
(Persicaria maculosa)

Etymology[edit]

red +‎ shank

Noun[edit]

redshank (plural redshanks)

  1. Any of two species of Old World wading bird in the genus Tringa that have long red legs.
    • 1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 41:
      Saltings ringing with the redshank's cry.
  2. Any of species Ceratodon purpureus of moss
    Synonyms: fire moss, purple horn toothed moss
  3. Lady's thumb or redleg (Persicaria maculosa), an herb in the buckwheat family.
  4. (obsolete, derogatory) A bare-legged person; one of the Scottish Highlanders, who wore kilts.
    • 1997 [1596], Edmund Spenser, A Veue of the Present State of Ireland‎[1]:
      Much worse then the former; for who that is experienced in those partes and knoweth not that the Oneales are neerely alied unto the Mac Oneales of Scotland, and to the Earle of Argill, from whom they use to have all ther succors of those Scottes and Redshanks?

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