IBIS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ibis mean? 

• IBIS (noun)
  The noun IBIS has 1 sense:

1. wading birds of warm regions having long slender down-curved bills

  Familiarity information: IBIS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IBIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wading birds of warm regions having long slender down-curved bills

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("ibis" is a kind of...):

wader; wading bird (any of many long-legged birds that wade in water in search of food)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ibis"):

Ibis ibis; wood ibis; wood stork (any of several Old World birds of the genus Ibis)

sacred ibis; Threskiornis aethiopica (African ibis venerated by ancient Egyptians)

Holonyms ("ibis" is a member of...):

family Ibidiidae; family Threskiornithidae; Threskiornithidae (ibises)

 Context examples 

These they compared to those of 26 modern ibises from different parts of Africa — ibises of this species disappeared from Egypt itself during modern times.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

Bird life was abundant, especially the wading birds, stork, heron, and ibis gathering in little groups, blue, scarlet, and white, upon every log which jutted from the bank, while beneath us the crystal water was alive with fish of every shape and color.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

According to the researchers, sacrifice and mummification of sacred ibises was common in Egypt from about 664 b.c.e. to 250 c.e., from the twenty-sixth dynasty into the early period of Roman Egypt.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

An international team of scientists report ancient Egyptians captured sacred ibises (Threskiornis aethiopicus) from the wild for use in ritual sacrifice rather than domesticating the birds.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

While some ancient Egyptian writers made passing mention of feeding bread and plants to ibises, according to Wasef archaeologists have not yet turned up any hatchery structures.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

The team collected DNA samples from mummified birds collected from six separate catacombs including sites at Abydos, Saqqara, and Tuna el-Gebel with permission from the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquity, and several museums offered to send tissue samples from the mummified ibises in their collections.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

Lead author Sally Wasef of Australia's Griffith University explained to the press, The ibis was considered to represent the god Thoth, the god of wisdom, the god of magic, the god of judgment, writing all sorts of things (...) If you had a boss that annoys you and you don't feel like you are getting a good judgment from him or you want fairness and justice, you go and ask Thoth to interfere and in return you promise to offer him an ibis, a mummified ibis, in his annual feast.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

Millions of mummified ibis birds have been found in Egyptian tombs and catacombs in Saqqara and Tuna el-Gebel, and Egyptologists have reported they were sacrificed to the god Thoth, who is often depicted with the head of an ibis, the way Horus is shown with the head of a falcon and Bast with the head of a cat.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)