Forms: 4–7 egle, 5 egylle, 6 aegle, 6–7 ægle, 6– eagle; also 4–5 a negle, neggle. [ME. egle, a. OF. egle, aigle = Pr. aigla, It. aquila, Sp., Pg. aguila:—L. aquila.]
1. The name commonly given to any of the larger Diurnal Birds-of-prey which are not Vultures; though some birds are accounted Eagles by ornithologists which are smaller than certain Buzzards. Two species of Eagle are natives of Britain; the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaëtus), almost confined in these islands to the mountainous parts of Scotland and Ireland; and the Sea, or White-tailed Eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla) found on the coasts of the same countries. Much resembling the latter is the Bald or White-headed Eagle (H. leucocephalus), the emblematic bird of the United States of America.
The strength, keen vision, graceful and powerful flight of the eagle are proverbial, and have given to him the title of the king of birds.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., xxx. Sel. Wks. II. 110. Lyke to a fleynge egle. Ibid. (1382), Jer. iv. 13. Swiftere than eglis his hors.
c. 1475. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 701. Hec aquila, a negylle. Ibid., 761. A egyle.
1535. Coverdale, Obad. 4. Though thou wentest vp as hye as the Aegle.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 81. An Ægle snatched a peece of bread out of his hand.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 224. Will these moyst Trees, That haue out-liu’d the Eagle, page thy heeles And skip when thou point’st out?
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 123. Eagles are remarkable for their longevity; and for their power of sustaining a long abstinence from food.
1862. Lowell, Poet. Wks. (1879), 391/2. Ninety miles off as the eagle flies.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 25. Can I make my eye an eagle’s…?
b. with prefixed word defining the species.
1693. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 989. The largest I take to be that they call the Grey Eagle.
1790. Pennant, Tour in Scotl., II. 24. Sea Eagles breed in ruined towers, but quit the country in winter; the black eagles continue there the whole year.
1803. Pic Nic, No. 6 (1806), I. 224. The fierce bald-eagle, tyrant of thy native woods.
1865. Gould, Birds of Australia, I. 9. The natural disposition of the Wedge-tailed Eagle leads it to frequent the interior portion of the country.
c. fig. (often with allusion to 2 a, b.)
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 473. Our Princely Eagle Th’Imperiall Cæsar.
1664. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 126. Those two Sonnes of the Russian Eagle.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 47. Russia’s famish’d eagles Dare not to prey beneath the crescent’s light.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 64. Hope, a poising eagle.
2. A figure of the bird used for any purpose:
a. as an ensign in the Roman army, and as an ensign and badge in the French army under the empire.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 360. Hys egle to touche, Þat borne es in his banere.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 273. Caius Marius … ordained, that the Legions … should haue the Ægle for their standard.
1720. Ozell, Vertot’s Rom. Rep., II. XI. 161. Cinna flatter’d Valerius … that Sylla’s Soldiers … would soon desert to his Eagles.
1812. Wellington, Disp., 21, 24 July, in Examiner, 23 Aug., 535/2. The Eagles and Colours taken from the enemy.
1815. J. W. Croker, in Papers (1884), I. iii. 73. The broken eagles which the French soldiers wore on the fronts of their caps.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), IV. xxxviii. 348. Their eagles were retained as trophies.
b. as an armorial bearing; esp. of the Holy Roman Empire, and of the various modern empires, as the Austrian, French, German and Russian. Also as the badge of an order of knighthood.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monkes T., 393. The feeld of snow, with thegle of blak ther-Inne.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4182/1. A new Order of Knighthood, called the Order of the White Eagle. Ibid. (1707), No. 4354/2. Knight of the Order of the Prussian Eagle.
1845. Sarah Austin, trans. Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. I. 149. The … cities … which bear the imperial eagle in their arms.
c. as the sign (or appellation) of an inn.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 75. At the syne of the Eggylle.
3. Applied to certain objects made in the form of an eagle; such as a brass (or wooden) lectern in a church; the ampulla containing the anointing oil used at coronations; a clasp for a belt, etc.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 213. The reader’s desk is an inclosure … in which is a gilt brass pillar supporting an eagle.
1820. A. Taylor, Glory of Regality, 61. A spoon, into which the oil is poured from the beak of the eagle.
1836. Parker, Gloss. Archit., I. 287. A common form for brass lecterns … is that of an eagle … with wings expanded to receive the book.
1842. Tennyson, Godiva, 43. She … Unclasp’d the wedded eagles of her belt.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. vi. Mr. Tusher … read from the eagle.
4. The asterism Aquila, one of the northern constellations. † Eagle-star, Altair or α Aquilæ.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl., 264. Towarde the southe, is the Egle, includynge 9 starres.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 522. From the Egle-star.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 329. In the west appears Atair, in the Eagle.
5. A coin bearing the image of the bird; spec. a coin of base metal current in England at the accession of Edward I.; a gold coin of the United States, value ten dollars. Double-eagle: a U.S. coin worth twenty dollars.
[c. 1350. W. Hemingburgh, Chronicon (1849), II. 187. Monetas … pessimi metalli, pollardorum, crocardorum … aquilarum, [etc.].]
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., He … decry’d the use of these Eagles, and other the like kinds of base coin.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle, I. (1874), 209. Quite a glut of eagle-pieces.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v., There are also double-eagles of twenty dollars, as well as half and quarter-eagles.
6. Sea Eagle: † a. properly the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaëtus albicilla), which older writers confounded with the Osprey or so-called Fishing Eagle. Pennant, Brit. Zool. (1766) 140, refers to Sibbald as having applied this name to the Skua.
1766. Pennant, Brit. Zool., 63.
b. a species of Skate, Myliobates marginata. [So Fr. aigle de mer: see quot.]
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 584. The Myliobates receives its common name of Sea-eagle from having the pectoral fins of extreme breadth, so that it much resembles a bird of prey with its wings expanded.
† 7. Arch. The gable of a house; the pediment of a temple. [transl. L. aquila, Gr. ἀετός, ἀέτωμα.]
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, V. 360. The Figures of the Front, which the Antients called the Eagle. Ibid., 388. On the highest point of the Eagle is a broad Stone laid.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v.
† 8. Cant. ‘The winning Gamester’ (New Cant. Dict., 1725). Obs.
9. Angling. A kind of artificial fly.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 360. There are two Eagles, the grey and yellow.
10. Comb. a. attrib., as eagle-bark, -claw, -eye, -flight, -height, -plume, -plumage, -radiance, -speed, -spirit, -standard; b. objective, as eagle-baffling adj., -bearer; c. parasynthetic deriv., as eagle-billed, -pinioned, -sighted, -winged adjs.; eagle-like adj. and adv. Also eagle-cock, a weather-cock; eagle-fisher, the Osprey; † eagle-flower, the Balsam (Impatiens Balsamina); eagle-ray, -skate (= sense 6 b); † eagle-wit, a person of penetrating intellect. Also EAGLE-EYED, -HAWK, -OWL, -STONE.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. i. 20. This wall of *eagle-baffling mountain.
1875. Browning, Aristoph. Apol. Aiskhulos bronze-throat *eagle-bark at blood.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 939. The mouth forked and *Eagle-bill’d.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 195. *Eagle-claw trap.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. III. x. (1743), 213. On which was a Cross 15 Foot and a half high; and on that an *Eagle-Cock of Copper gilt, 4 Foot long.
[1603. Chettle, etc. Patient Grissil (1841), 12. Women have *eagle’s eyes To pry even to the heart.]
1819. J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. (1871), 120. The eagle eyes of informers.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., X. 145. Hiawatha … Hardly touched his *eagle-feathers As he entered at the doorway.
1849. C. St. John, Tour Suthld., I. 24. A shepherd told us of a nest of the *Eagle Fisher.
1851. Gallenga, trans. Mariotti’s Italy, 337. *Eagle-flight of genius was out of the question with him.
1785. Chambers, Cycl. (ed. Rees), s.v. Balsamine, The other [species] is from China … most commonly called the immortal *eagle-flower.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 386. Trees and Shrubs which are now in Flower, as … Genistella, Eagle Flower.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 29. At such an *eagle-height I stand.
a. 1600. J. Bryan, Ps. cxxvii. in Farr’s, S. P., 335. *Eagle-like his fame shall mount.
a. 1626. R. Harris, Hezekiah’s Recovery (1630), 29. Good men wil blesse God for an Eagle-like body, a body full of strength and life, i. of action and motion like the Eagles, which is most lasting.
1800. Burns, Wks., III. 301. Dangers, *eagle-pinioned, bold, Soar around each cliffy hold.
1811. Scott, Roderick, 28. Morena’s *eagle-plume adorned his crest.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. ix. *Eagle-plumage deck’d her hair.
1717. Fenton, Poems, 160 (Jod.). The nectar’d sweets supply *Eagle-radiance to the faded eye.
1856. Gosse, Marine Zool., II. 151. Myliobatis (Cuv.) *Eagle Ray. Head projecting: pectorals extended like wings.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 226. What peremptory *Eagle-sighted eye Dares looke?
1637. Heywood, Roy. Kings, I. i. Wks. 1874, VI. 7. I was borne Eagle-sighted, and to gaze In the Suns fore-head.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 113. S. Iohn, lastly, having written his Eagle-sighted Gospel.
1882. St. James’s Gaz., 15 March, 6/1. The formidable sting-ray, *eagle-skate, or thère.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 413. Abrupt, with *eagle-speed she cut the sky.
1817. Byron, Lament Tasso, 2. *Eagle-spirit of a child of song.
1811. Scott, Roderick, 42. On *eagle-standards and on arms he gazed.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 129. The *eagle-winged pride Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts.
1675. J. Smith, Chr. Relig. Appeal, II. 12. The Eagle-wing’d Evangelist.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, iii. 112. The eagle-winged lion of Daniel.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., xx. 129. Aristotle would have fainted before he had flown half so far, as that *Eagle-wit [Des-Cartes].
