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# loon

«loon» in Mova's school dictionary: **A large water bird of North America and northern Europe…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a loon, loons)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A large water bird of North America and northern Europe with a haunting call, good at diving for fish (called a diver in the UK). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#m1)

2) (informal) A silly, crazy or strange person. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#m2)

3) (Scotland, informal) A boy or young man (also spelled «loon» in the north-east). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In Canada and the northern USA the loon is a famous bird; it is on the Canadian one-dollar coin, which is called the «loonie». In everyday slang calling someone a «loon» means they are acting crazy, usually in a joking way. Phrases: crazy as a loon, the call of the loon.

### examples

- We heard a loon calling across the lake at night. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x1)
- The loon dived under the water to catch a fish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x2)
- My uncle is a bit of a loon, but he is very funny. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x3)
- Stop acting like a loon! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x4)
- The Canadian coin with the loon on it is called a loonie. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x5)
- A loon has red eyes and a black-and-white back. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x6)
- «You absolute loon,» laughed Gran. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/#x7)

### note

Plural: loons. Related: loony or looney (crazy — can hurt people with mental illness, so use kindly), loonie (Canadian dollar). In British English the bird is called a «diver».

### In the corpora

- [The sergeant speaks in old-fashioned words: «Oddsbodikins! … Rouse thee, old loon» (= Goodness!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/48-willows-ch6-part4-twenty-years-in-the-dungeon/33/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «loon» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/L/loon/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.