Dictionary entry

Daw

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Daw (da̤), n. [OE. dawe; akin to OHG. tāha, MHG. tāhe, tāhele, G. dohle. Cf. Caddow.] (Zoöl.) A European bird of the Crow family (Corvus monedula), often nesting in church towers and ruins; a jackdaw.

The loud daw, his throat

displaying, draws

The whole assembly of his fellow daws. Waller.

☞ The daw was reckoned as a silly bird, and a daw meant a simpleton. See in Shakespeare: — “Then thou dwellest with daws too.” (Coriolanus iv. 5, 1. 47.) Skeat.