NIGHTINGALE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Nightingale mean? 

• NIGHTINGALE (noun)
  The noun NIGHTINGALE has 2 senses:

1. European songbird noted for its melodious nocturnal song

2. English nurse remembered for her work during the Crimean War (1820-1910)

  Familiarity information: NIGHTINGALE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NIGHTINGALE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

European songbird noted for its melodious nocturnal song

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Luscinia megarhynchos; nightingale

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

thrush (songbirds characteristically having brownish upper plumage with a spotted breast)

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

bulbul (nightingale spoken of in Persian poetry)

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

genus Luscinia; Luscinia (nightingales)

Sense 2

Meaning:

English nurse remembered for her work during the Crimean War (1820-1910)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Florence Nightingale; Lady with the Lamp; Nightingale

Instance hypernyms:

nurse (one skilled in caring for young children or the sick (usually under the supervision of a physician))

 Context examples 

Poor Jorindel saw the nightingale was gone—but what could he do?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I was dazed and stupid with pain and terror and weakness, but the sound of the nightingale seemed like the voice of my dead mother come back to comfort me.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I'll say 'nightingales' then, with Laurie.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Jane, do you hear that nightingale singing in the wood?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She sang, and her voice flowed in a rich cadence, swelling or dying away like a nightingale of the woods.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It is named in honor of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing.

(Large Asteroid to Safely Pass Earth on Sept. 1, NASA)

Florence was discovered in 1981 by astronomer Schelte "Bobby" Bus at Australia's Siding Spring Observatory and named after Florence Nightingale, the nursing pioneer.

(Biggest Asteroid Ever Detected Flies Past Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

He looked around at the birds, but alas! there were many, many nightingales, and how then should he find out which was his Jorinda?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The nightingale's song was then the only voice of the hour: in listening to it, I again wept.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Somewhere near, a passing bell was tolling; the dogs all round the neighbourhood were howling; and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singing.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)