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# pigeon

«pigeon» in Mova's school dictionary: **A grey (or brown and white) bird with a small head and a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a pigeon, pigeons)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A grey (or brown and white) bird with a small head and a round body, very common in towns and cities. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#m1)

2) (homing/carrier pigeon) A pigeon trained to fly home over long distances, once used to carry messages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science and history: pigeons can find their way home from far away; in wars they carried messages. In towns: don't feed pigeons where it's not allowed, and wash your hands after touching them. Phrases: «homing pigeon», «carrier pigeon», «pigeon-toed» (feet turned inwards), «pigeonhole» (a small box for letters).

### examples

- Pigeons were pecking at crumbs in the square. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x1)
- A carrier pigeon carried the message across the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x2)
- Homing pigeons can fly home from hundreds of kilometres away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x3)
- The pigeon cooed on the windowsill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x4)
- Please don't feed the pigeons here. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x5)
- Put your letters in the teacher's pigeonhole. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x6)
- And close upon them followed three pigeons. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pigeon/#x7)

### note

Countable. Spelling: «-geon» like «surgeon»; said PIJ-in. Pigeons and doves are the same family; doves are usually smaller and white.

### In the corpora

- [Pigeons are smarter than they look: they can tell people's faces apart and remember who chased them and who fed them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/3/)
- [City pigeons often get string or hair tangled round their toes, which can cut into the foot; wildlife rescuers carefully remove it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/10/)
- [Pigeons can tell people apart by their faces, and in experiments they even learned to tell paintings by different artists apart.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/11/)
- [Calling pigeons rats with wings is unfair: they have lived alongside people for thousands of years, and people bred them on purpose.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/12/)
- [Feeding huge crowds of pigeons with bread makes too many pigeons, and birds packed in crowds spread mess and illness more easily.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/14/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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