From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpetrelpet‧rel /ˈpetrəl/ noun [countable] HBBa black and white sea bird
Examples from the Corpus
petrel• Thomas Campbell Eyton wanted as many petrels as Gould could capture for a monograph on the Procellaridae.• By day, a colony of petrels or shearwaters is a quiet, apparently deserted place.• We identified two different types of albatross, four species of petrel, and a tern.• Brown and McCormick's skuas and Wilson's petrels fly as far as temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere.• Fulmars, gannets and an occasional storm petrel performed aerobatics in our wake.• But my children were as amazed at this strange petrel with its eerie call as I had hoped they would be.• In summer petrels nest in crevices in the rocks, and colonies of penguins breed on nearby islands.Origin petrel (1600-1700) Perhaps from Saint Peter 