[f. WATER sb. + FOWL sb.; cf. OHG. waʓʓarvogel (mod.G. wasser-), Du. watervogel.] Any bird that frequents the water, or inhabits the margin of lakes, rivers, seas, etc.; in mod. use chiefly applied to the larger kinds of swimming birds, esp. those that are regarded as game. Often collect. sing. for pl.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 398. Þe fifte dai … On watur fuxol and fiss he wroght.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 327. But watir foule sate lowest in the dale. Ibid., 554. The watir foules.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxix. (1495), 140. Water foules haue bytwene theyr toes and clawes as it were a skynne.
1433. Lydg., S. Edmund, II. 162. Al watir foul and foul upon the lond.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Querquedula, a waterfowle callyd a teale.
a. 1593. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, IV. v. 1382. Where thou shalt see … White Swannes, and many louely water fowles.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 499. Great store of young water-fowle.
1798. Coleridge, Parl. Oscill., 29. You know that water-fowl that cries, Quack! Quack!?
1843. Marryat, M. Violet, xliv. The water-fowls are plentiful, such as swans, geese, ducks.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. 564. As when waterfowl of many tribes—Geese, cranes and long-necked swans—disport themselves.
attrib. 1903. Amer. Sportsman’s Libr., IV. (title), The Water-Fowl Family.
