Definition of Pelicen
Pelican, a bird, the effigy of which was used in the Middle Ages to
symbolise charity; generally represented as wounding its breast to feed
its young with its own blood, and which became the image of the Christ
who shed His blood for His people.
- Wikipedia
Pel"i*can (?), n. [F.
pélican, L. pelicanus, pelecanus, Gr. &?;,
&?;, &?;, the woodpecker, and also a water bird of the pelican kind,
fr. &?; to hew with an ax, akin to Skr. paraçu.]
[Written also pelecan.] 1. (Zoöl.)
Any large webfooted bird of the genus Pelecanus, of which
about a dozen species are known. They have an enormous bill, to the
lower edge of which is attached a pouch in which captured fishes are
temporarily stored.
&fist; The American white pelican (Pelecanus
erythrorhynchos) and the brown species (P. fuscus) are
abundant on the Florida coast in winter, but breed about the lakes in
the Rocky Mountains and British America.
2. (Old Chem.) A retort or still having
a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for
continuous condensation and redistillation.
&fist; The principle is still employed in certain modern forms of
distilling apparatus.
Frigate pelican (Zoöl.), the
frigate bird. See under Frigate. -- Pelican
fish (Zoöl.), deep-sea fish (Eurypharynx
pelecanoides) of the order Lyomeri, remarkable for the
enormous development of the jaws, which support a large gular
pouch. -- Pelican flower (Bot.), the
very large and curiously shaped blossom of a climbing plant
(Aristolochia grandiflora) of the West Indies; also, the plant
itself. -- Pelican ibis (Zoöl.),
a large Asiatic wood ibis (Tantalus leucocephalus). The
head and throat are destitute of feathers; the plumage is white, with
the quills and the tail greenish black. -- Pelican in her
piety (in heraldry and symbolical art), a representation
of a pelican in the act of wounding her breast in order to nourish her
young with her blood; -- a practice fabulously attributed to the bird,
on account of which it was adopted as a symbol of the Redeemer, and of
charity. -- Pelican's foot (Zoöl.),
a marine gastropod shell of the genus Aporrhais, esp.
Aporrhais pes-pelicani of Europe.
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
- Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, famous for their large beaks.
- The Nuttall Encyclopedia
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