dial. [f. BUZZ v.1 + -ARD.]
1. A name applied to various insects that fly by night, e.g., large moths and cockchafers. (Undoubted instances of its use in earlier times are wanting Cf. BUZZER1.)
[Cf. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. 209, where there is perh. a play on this sense. Also, the following among other passages:
1654. Gayton, Festiv. Notes, 188 (N.). O owle! hast thou only kept company with bats, buzzards, and beetles in this long retirement in the desert.]
1825. Hood, Ode to Graham. They are wise that choose the near, A few small buzzards in the ear, To organs ages hence.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), 64. He’s olez after buzzerts and things.
2. = BUZZER1 3.
1878. Grosart, in H. More’s Poems, Index 211/1. The steam-whistle for calling the mill-operatives to work is named ‘buzzard’ in Lancashire (Blackburn).
Comb. buzzard-clock, a cockchafer.
1864. Tennyson, North. Farmer, 18. An’ [I] ’eerd un a bummin’ awaäy loike a buzzard-clock ower my yeäd.
1877. E. Peacock, N.-W. Lincoln. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Buzzard-clock, a kind of beetle; a cockchafer.
