From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmagpiemag‧pie /ˈmæɡpaɪ/ noun [countable] 1 HBBa bird with black and white feathers and a long tail2 informalCOLLECT someone who likes collecting things
Examples from the Corpus
magpie• One of these birds is depicted as a magpie.• There were blackbirds and thrushes and skylarks and ravens and starlings and jays and magpies and many kinds of small finches.• As they reached the edge of the clearing Philip saw the dead magpie.• He and his silly birds would have to go eventually, of course, because he made the magpies nervous.• As a result, the magpie population dropped dramatically: in one village, from 259 birds to just 77.• As she stepped out into the moonlight, two magpies landed on the thatch.Origin magpie (1500-1600) Mag female name (from Margaret) + pie “magpie” ((13-20 centuries)) (from Old French, from Latin pica) 