whippoorwill

• whip-poor-will, whippowill, whip-o-will, whip-o'-will

Imitative of its note.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɪp.ɚˌwɪl/, /ˈwɪp.ɚˌwɪl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪp.əˌwɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: whip‧poor‧will

whippoorwill (plural whippoorwills)

1. A nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus), a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55:

     “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.”

2. The distinctive call of the above bird.

   The bird sang his whippoorwills all night.

   • 2023 December 12, Timothy C. Baker, Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories‎^[1], MIT Press, →ISBN:

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

   • 1959, Thomas William Duncan, Big River, Big Man‎^[2]:

     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.

   • 1857, Grace Greenwood, The Little Pilgrim‎^[3], page 91:

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

• eastern whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus)
• Mexican whippoorwill (Antrostomus arizonae)

• chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis)
• nightjar (Antrostomus spp.)

• “whippoorwill”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.