American bald eagle

noun

: bald eagle

… treated this winter to the rare sight of an adult American bald eagle, soaring with wings spread six feet wide, perched in a tree or a vacant osprey nest near the shore, or resting on ice floes as the tide carries them along.

—Peter Boody, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2005

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined above

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