vulture

English

Griffon vulture

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-Norman vultur, from Old French voutoir, voutre, from Latin vultur, voltur.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvʌltʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvʌlt͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌltʃə(ɹ)

Noun

vulture (plural vultures)

1. Any of several carrion-eating birds of the families Accipitridae and Cathartidae.
   • 1912, Flight‎^[1]:

     The outer third of the wing of a vulture consists of the wing tips. The inner two-thirds of the wing are cambered (when the wing is extended), and are concerned with lifting effort in unsoarable air and with lifting and tractive effort in soarable air.

   • 1982, Michael Bishop, No enemy but time:

     In clusters on the plain, like cowlless monks at matins, sat the vultures that had settled on the corpse of the hyena impaled by the female rhino […]

2. (figurative, colloquial) A person who profits from the suffering of others.

   Synonyms: ambulance chaser, vampire

   Within ten minutes of the accident, the vultures appeared and were organizing lawsuits.

Hyponyms

• American black vulture
• bearded vulture
• black vulture
• cinereous vulture
• Egyptian vulture
• Eurasian black vulture
• greater yellow-headed vulture
• griffon vulture
• Himalayan griffon vulture
• king vulture
• lappet-faced vulture
• monk vulture
• New World vulture
• Old World vulture
• turkey vulture

Derived terms

• culture vulture
• Pondicherry vulture
• red-headed vulture
• vulture bee
• vulture capitalism
• vulture capitalist
• vulture culture
• vulture fund
• vulture hock
• vulturelike
• vulturine
• vulturish
• vulturous
• white scavenger vulture

Translations

bird

• Afrikaans: aasvoël (af)
• Aja: gùndú
• Akan: opete
• Albanian: coftinar m, shkabë (sq) f, gabonjë (sq) f, gjyp m, hutë (sq) f
• Apache:

  Western Apache: chʼishǫǫgi

• Arabic: نَسْر (ar) m (nasr)

  Egyptian Arabic: نسر m (nesr)

• Aragonese: vueitre
• Armenian: անգղ (hy) (angġ)

  Old Armenian: անգղ (angł)

• Aromanian: vultur m, ornji f
• Assamese: শগুন (xogun)
• Asturian: utre (ast) f, utra (ast) f, butre (ast) f
• Avar: хъвек (qxʷek), чудук (čuduk)
• Azerbaijani: leşyeyən
• Balinese: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: sai, putre
• Bats: სოვ (sov)
• Belarusian: грыф m (hryf), сіп m (sip), белагало́вы сіп m (bjelahalóvy sip)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: gup (br) m, bultur (br) m
• Bulgarian: лешояд (bg) m (lešojad)
• Burmese: လင်းတ (my) (lang:ta.)
• Burushaski: gaċhir, garmun
• Catalan: voltor (ca) m
• Central Sierra Miwok: čý·šywitna-
• Chakma: please add this translation if you can
• Chamicuro: tsemo'ye
• Chechen: аьрзу (ärzu)
• Cherokee: ᏑᎵ (suli)
• Chichewa: dembo
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 兀鷹 / 兀鹰 (zh) (wùyīng), 鵰 / 雕 (zh) (diāo)

• Czech: sup (cs) m
• Danish: grib (da) c
• Dutch: gier (nl) m
• Egyptian: (nrt f)
• Esperanto: vulturo (eo)
• Estonian: kaeluskotkas
• Faroese: gammur m
• Finnish: korppikotka (fi)
• French: vautour (fr) m, carencro (Cajun)
• Friulian: astôr m, variűl
• Galician: voitre (gl) m, butre m
• Georgian: ორბი (orbi), სვავი (svavi)

  Old Georgian: სოვი (sovi)

• German: Geier (de) m, Geierin f

  Alemannic German: Giir m

• Greek: γύπας (el) m (gýpas)

  Ancient: γύψ m (gúps), τόργος m (tórgos), αἰγυπιός m (aigupiós)

• Greenlandic: nattoraliusaq
• Gujarati: ગીધ (gu) n (gīdh)
• Haryanvi: गिरहज (girhaj), कर्गस (kargas)
• Hausa: ungulu
• Hawaiian: wulekula
• Hebrew: נשר (he) m (nesher), עוזנייה / עָזְנִיָּה (he) f ('ozniyá)
• Hindi: गिद्ध (hi) ? (giddh)
• Hungarian: keselyű (hu)
• Icelandic: gammur (is) m, gæsagammur m, hrægammur (is) m
• Ido: vulturo (io)
• Indonesian: nazar (id), hering (id)
• Iranun: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: badhbh m, garrfhiach m, amach m, bultúr m
• Italian: avvoltoio (it) m
• Japanese: 禿鷹 (ja) (ハゲタカ, hagetaka), 禿鷲 (ja) (ハゲワシ, hagewashi)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kashmiri: گرَٛد
• Kazakh: құмай (qūmai)
• Khmer: ត្មាត (km) (tmaat)
• Korean: 독수리 (ko) (doksuri)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھەڵۆ (ckb) (hello)

• Ladin: valtoi ?
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: vultur (la) m
• Latvian: grifs m, maitu lija f
• Laz: მარსიღი (marsiği)
• Lithuanian: grifas (lt) ?
• Luxembourgish: Geier (lb) m
• Macedonian: мршојадец m (mršojadec)
• Maguindanao: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: nasar, hering
• Maltese: avultun m
• Manx: ushag chonvayrtagh f
• Maranao: banog, garoda
• Marathi: गिधाड n (gidhāḍ)
• Minangkabau: please add this translation if you can
• Mingrelian: ფსივი (psivi)
• Mon: တမာတ် (kəmat)
• Mongolian: тас (mn) (tas), элээ (mn) (elee)
• Navajo: jeeshóóʼ
• Northern Sami: goaskin, ^{(please verify)} čuonjáráhtogoaskin
• Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: gribb m
• Occitan: voltor (oc) m
• Odia: ଶାଗୁଣା (or) (śāguṇā)
• Old English: ultor m
• Ossetian: хӕдмӕлхор (xædmælxor)
• Ottoman Turkish: آق بابا (ak baba)
• Persian: کرکس (fa) (karkas), لاشخور (fa) (lâšxwar)
• Polish: sęp (pl) m
• Portuguese: abutre (pt) m, urubu (pt) m, condor (pt) m
• Quechua: ullasku, wiskul, suwintu
• Rohingya: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: vultur (ro) m
• Romansch: tschess m
• Russian: гриф (ru) m (grif), стервя́тник (ru) m (stervjátnik)
• Sanskrit: आज (sa) m (āja)
• Sardinian: bentruxiu ?, untruxu ?, murru ?, bentruxu m, venturzu m, guntorzu m, curturzu m, guntruxu ?, intruxu ?, intulzu ?
• Scottish Gaelic: fang f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: су̏п m, лѐшина̄р m, стр̀вина̄р m

  Latin: sȕp (sh) m, lèšinār (sh) m, str̀vinār (sh) m

• Shan: လၢင်းတႃႉ (láang tâ̰a), ၼၢင်းတႃႉ (náang tâ̰a)
• Sicilian: vuturu (scn) m, avuturu (scn) m
• Slovak: sup m
• Slovene: mrhovinar m, jastreb (sl) m (a species of these birds)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: sup m

  Upper Sorbian: sup m

• Spanish: buitre (es) m, zopilote (es) m

  Old Spanish: boitre m

• Sranan Tongo: krepsi
• Svan: სუ̂აუ̂ (sûaû)
• Swahili: tai (sw), gushu, tumbusi
• Swedish: gam (sv) c
• Sylheti: please add this translation if you can
• Tagalog: buwitre
• Telugu: రాబందు (te) (rābandu)
• Thai: อีแร้ง (th) (ee ráeng), แร้ง (th) (ráeng)
• Tibetan: བྱ་རྒོད (bya rgod), རྒོད (rgod)
• Turkish: akbaba (tr)
• Ukrainian: гриф m (hryf), па́дальник m (pádalʹnyk)
• Urdu: گدھ m (giddh)
• Uzbek: jo'rchi (uz), kalxat (uz)
• Venetan: voltor ?, avoltogio ?
• Vietnamese: kền kền (vi)
• Volapük: vultur (vo)
• Welsh: fwltur m or f, fultur m or f, fwlturiaid m pl or f pl
• West Frisian: gier c
• Wolof: tan mi
• Yiddish: גריף m (grif)
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

person

• Afrikaans: aasvoël (af)
• Bulgarian: хищник (bg) m (hištnik)
• Finnish: haaskalintu (fi)
• French: charognard (fr) m, vautour (fr) m
• Georgian: სვავი (svavi)
• German: Aasgeier (de) m
• Hungarian: hiéna (hu)
• Ido: vulturo (io)
• Polish: sęp (pl) m
• Russian: стервя́тник (ru) m (stervjátnik)
• Spanish: buitre (es) m
• Turkish: akbaba (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} გრიფი (gripi), ^{(please verify)} სვავი (svavi)

Verb

vulture (third-person singular simple present vultures, present participle vulturing, simple past and past participle vultured)

1. (figurative, colloquial) To circle around one's target as if one were a vulture.

   Rudy vultured when asking the girl out.

Adjective

vulture

1. (obsolete) ravenous; rapacious
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:

     Whose vultur thought doth pitch the price so hie,
     That she will draw his lips rich treasure drie.

Further reading

• vulture on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Noun

vulture

1. ablative singular of vultur