noun

• 1A stout seed- or fruit-eating bird with a small head, short legs, and a cooing voice, typically having gray and white plumage.

  Family Columbidae: numerous genera and species

  ‘Their short breeding cycle allows pigeons and doves to have more broods to compensate for their small brood sizes and relatively high rates of predation.’

  See also dove (sense 1)

  More example sentences

  • ‘This diet mimics the composition of crop milk in white Carneaux pigeons, Columbia livia, and the diet of older squabs.’
  • ‘After lunch, we walked round the spit and swam in a sea like silk, with only a sea eagle and a few white Torres Strait pigeons for company.’
  • ‘The place even sold white pigeons as ‘pets'.’
  • ‘A typical company might charge $250 or more to release 12 white pigeons.’
  • ‘They release white pigeons at the end of every church service.’
  • ‘In 1990, when production of all fruits was relatively poor, the lowest number of pigeons bred for the shortest period of time.’
  • ‘Hugo was walking hand in hand with Lindsay as they strolled in the beautiful park; the white pigeons flew around them… he was in heaven!’
  • ‘I looked up to see gigantic white pigeons in the treetops.’
  • ‘Even bigger flocks of white pigeons are a mild distraction; we quickly followed a small crowd that headed for a nearby pond.’
  • ‘He'd pounce too fast and fall short of the pigeon.’
  • ‘Stewart screamed as his father hauled him up, thrashed around with arms to protect his face when a white pigeon suddenly exploded from below him and beat its way into the safe air.’
  • ‘When she turned back Dagmar was gone, a grey pigeon sat on the window sill, high above.’
  • ‘In one, a white pigeon is perched on a hand round which a serpent, ready to strike, has wound itself.’
  • ‘Balloons and 55 white pigeons were launched by radio stations all over the country on the eve of last Friday's concert.’
  • ‘I also see hornbills pass up small - fruited figs that would draw doves and pigeons in by the hundreds.’

  1. 1.1A pigeon descended from the wild rock dove, kept for racing, showing, and carrying messages, and common as a feral bird in towns.
     ‘Until recently, winter nesting in British birds has been very rare beyond a handful of species that include the wood pigeon, feral pigeon, and collared dove.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Descended from wild rock doves, homing pigeons can locate their lofts, or roosts, even when released several thousand miles away.’
     • ‘Its been estimated by some pigeon fanciers that there as many as 500 wild pigeons in the town centre.’
     • ‘He uses homing pigeons to carry messages back home.’
     • ‘Pigeon racing is also a common pass-time and racing pigeons can sell for as much as $350 000.’
     • ‘It also eats birds such as magpies and pigeons, rodents, wild boar and young deer.’
     • ‘On a less frantic note, while we go to a rooftop in Rome, dozens of doves, pigeons, were released carrying messages of hope and peace.’
     • ‘DNA extracted from specimens of extinct animals has already been used to show that the Mauritian dodo is a close cousin to the common pigeon.’
     • ‘And lots of animals, from coyotes to common pigeons, mate for life.’
     • ‘Recently, global positioning systems have become small and light enough to be carried by pigeons.’
     • ‘Attacks by birds of prey on Scotland's flocks of racing pigeons are to be officially investigated for the first time.’
     • ‘The college campus will have pigeons flying and carrying love letters and short messages.’
     • ‘Other life included a family of German walkers, a mountain biker, and a flock of racing pigeons that skimmed the heather to mitigate a strong south-westerly.’
     • ‘Suspicions that new and undetectable drugs are being used have grown after samples from scores of racing pigeons in Belgium disappeared.’
     • ‘Presently it is the abode of wild pigeons, bats, goats, dogs, pigs etc.’
     • ‘There have been four incidents involving racing pigeons at the airport since 2002, two involving planes landing and two taking off.’
     • ‘So the settlers looked to the land to provide for them, curlews, pigeons and other forest birds along with the occasional wild pig.’
     • ‘She revealed that pigeons in certain town centre areas are being fed raw pieces of meat, pies and pasties, cakes, and full loaves of bread.’
     • ‘However, in areas where rabbits are scarce, feral cats will prey largely on wild pigeons and native animals.’
     • ‘Birds such as the homing pigeon comprise most of the short list.’

• 2North American informal A gullible person, especially someone swindled in gambling or the victim of a confidence trick.

  More example sentences

  • ‘At the end of the day, one has to admit that most would-be megastars, the pigeons in this behavioral con game, are complicit in their deception.’
  • ‘The pigeon is the gaming commission who doesn't recognize the gambler's need for excitement and agrees to bar them from casinos.’
  • ‘In Trafalgar Square, he meets up with Bugsy, a fat, smelly, cheeky con-man pigeon, who ends up volunteering for the war effort by mistake.’

• 3military slang An aircraft from one's own side.

noun