Buzzard

Definitions

1. A surname from Old French.
2. Any of several Old World birds of prey of the genus Buteo with broad wings and a broad tail.
3. A bastard.
   euphemistic
4. Any scavenging bird, such as the American black vulture (Coragyps atratus) or the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura).
   Canada, US
5. In North America, a curmudgeonly or cantankerous man; an old person; a mean, greedy person.
   colloquial, derogatory, slang
6. A blockhead; a dunce.
   archaic
7. Synonym of double bogey.
8. A fighter plane.
   US, World-War-I, slang
9. The insignia of a colonel, or a petty officer within the navy.
   US, dated, slang
10. A military discharge (due to the military discharge certificate).
    US, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“Perhaps the crusty old buzzard loved his only child more than anyone had given him credit for all these years — maybe even more than he himself had realized.”

“1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 142, An old man’s shadow is better than a young buzzard’s sword.”

“It is common, to a proverb, to call⟳ one who can not be taught, or who continues obstinately ignorant, a buzzard.”

CEFR level