finch

From Middle English fynch, from Old English finċ, from Proto-West Germanic *finki, from Proto-Germanic *finkiz (compare Dutch vink, German Fink), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pingos (“chaffinch”). Compare Welsh pinc (“finch”), Ancient Greek σπίγγος (spíngos, “chaffinch”), Russian пе́нка (pénka, “wren”), Sanskrit फिङ्गक (phiṅgaka, “drongo, shrike”).

• IPA^(key): /fɪnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

finch (plural finches)

1. Any Eurasian goldfinch (of species Carduelis carduelis, syn. Fringilla carduelis).
2. Any bird of the family Fringillidae, seed-eating passerine birds, native chiefly to the Northern Hemisphere and usually having a conical beak.
3. Any bird of other families of similar appearance to members of family Fringillidae.
4. (UK, slang, dated) A woman.

   Synonym: bird

   • 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

     "Well, she could have put it across me for that matter if Dodger, who'd seen her up there, didn't happen to call round to do with the business," admitted George simply. "All these finches seem to get themselves up in the same way nowadays, till I can't tell one sort of tart from another. But I suppose there's something you go by."

• aberdevine
• amadavat
• avadavat
• brambling
• canary
• crossbill (Loxia spp.)
• euphonia
• redpoll (Acanthis spp.)
• serin
• siskin

finch (third-person singular simple present finches, present participle finching, simple past and past participle finched)

1. To hunt for finches, to go finching.

• finch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “finch”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “finch”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

finch

1. alternative form of fynch