Meaning of raven | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any of several, generally large, species of birds in the genus Corvus with lustrous black plumage; especially the common raven (Corvus corax).
   countable
2. Alternative spelling of ravin.
   alt-of, alternative, uncountable
3. A jet-black, often glossy, colour, like that of the plumage of a raven (etymology 1 sense 1).
   uncountable
4. Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a bird from a genus other than Corvus that resembles the raven (etymology 1 sense 1), especially in having black plumage; also, an imaginary black bird.
   archaic, countable
5. A flag bearing a raven (etymology 1 sense 1), formerly used by some Viking leaders
   countable, historical
6. preceded by the: Viking military power.
   historical, metonymically, uncountable
7. A person, especially a man, with black hair.
   countable
8. A person who brings bad news or makes pessimistic predictions.
   countable, figuratively, obsolete

Translations

Examples

“Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.”

“Thus like the ſad preſaging Rauen that tolls / The ſick mans paſſeport in her hollovv beake, / And in the ſhadovv of the ſilent night / Doth ſhake contagion from her ſable vvings; / Vex'd and tormented runnes poore Barabas / VVith fatall curſes tovvards theſe Chriſtians.”

“[T]he Danes bare in their Enſigne a Raven vvrought (by report) in needle-vvorke, by the daughters of Lothbroke that is, Leather-breech, […]”

“Hee beareth Or, a Rauen Proper, by the name of Corbet.”

“As from an ancestral oak / Two empty ravens sound their clarion, / Yell by yell, and croak by croak, / When they scent the noonday smoke / Of fresh human carrion: […]”

“If the men of Thule have ceased to be champions, and to spread the banquet for the raven, the women have not forgotten the arts that lifted them of yore into queens and prophetesses.”

“All is silent and melancholy, unless when the mournful bleeting of the hemmed in Deer reaches your ear, or the dismal scream of an Eagle or a Raven is heard, as the foul bird rises, disturbed by your approach, from the carcass on which it was allaying its craving appetite.”

“The raven, with his head very much on one side, and his bright eye shining like a diamond, preserved a thoughtful silence for a few seconds, and then replied in a voice so hoarse and distant, that it seemed to come through his thick feathers rather than out of his mouth. "Halloa, halloa, halloa! What's the matter here! Keep up your spirits. Never say die. Bow wow wow. I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil. Hurrah!"”

“"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, / Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore— / Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" / Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."”

“There comes Poe with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, / Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths fudge, / […] / Who has written some things quite the best of their kind, / But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind, […]”

“A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, / Croak'd, and she thought 'he spies a field of death; / For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea, / Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court, / Begin to slay the folk, and spoil the land.'”

“Near-synonyms: ebony, onyx”

“A lone man walks the shores of Nantucket; his noble form is slightly bent, and with the raven of his hair is blended the faintest tinge of gray, though he is evidently a man to whom the meridian of life is yet far in the distance; […]”

“VVhen the great ſea-raven, as Jacobſon informs us, comes to take avvay their young, the puffins boldly oppoſe him. […] As ſoon as the raven approaches, the puffin catches him under the throat vvith its beak, and ſticks its clavvs into his breaſt, vvhich makes the raven, vvith a loud ſcreaming, attempt to get avvay; […]”

“Along the wild mountains night-ravens were yelling— / They bodingly presaged destruction and woe.”

“Behold the vvarrior bright vvith Daniſh ſpoils!— / The raven droops his vvings—and hark! the trumpet, / Exulting, ſpeaks the reſt.”

“Ric[hard]. Novv y'ave ſpoke it halfe; 'tis ſinking I muſt treate of; / Your ſhips are all ſunke. / […] / M[istress] Foſt[er]. O thou fatall Raven; Let me pull thine eyes out for this / Sad croake.”

“Mal[icorn]. O my dear Lord, upon this onely day / Depends the ſeries of your follovving Fate: / Think your good Genius has aſſum'd my ſhape / In this Prophetick doom. / Guiſe. Peace croaking Raven, / I'le ſeize him firſt, then make him a led Monarch; […]”

“Some ravens have alvvays indeed croaked out this kind of ſong. They have a malignant delight in preſaging miſchief vvhen they are not employed in doing it: they are miſerable and diſapointed at every inſtance of the public proſperity.”

CEFR level