grebe

noun

ˈgrēb 

: any of a family (Podicipedidae) of swimming and diving birds closely related to the loons but having lobed toes compare dabchick

Illustration of grebe

Examples of grebe in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One of the more unusual nesting techniques is the floating nest of the grebe. —Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 May 2025

Lake Hodges near Escondido is a major grebe nesting location where birders enjoy following the nesting process that begins with the weaving of reeds into floating mats where eggs are then deposited. Loons, coots, rails and gallinules are also floating nest builders. —Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 May 2025

Closer to shore, two small birds only about 15 inches in length, called horned grebes, floated in the water, revealing their orange feather tufts on either side of their heads, before they, too, like the loons, disappeared into the water to search for food. —Sheryl De Vore, Chicago Tribune, 1 Apr. 2025

Just a few yards away, another bird, possibly another grebe, its belly and head obscured by the sand, also lay still. —Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French grèbe, going back to Middle French grebe, griaibe, a name for the bird in Franco-Provençal of Savoy, of obscure origin

Note: The noun grebe was apparently introduced into ornithological literature by Conrad gesner in Historiæ Animalium Liber III. qui est de avium natura (Zürich, 1555), p. 563: "Gavia cinerea, quæ ad flumina & lacus ascendit …Hæc Italice circa Comum galedor uocatur, circa Verbanum lacum et alibi galetra, Gallis gauian uel mouette, uel glaumet, Sabaudis grebe, uel griaibe, uel beque, uel heyron, quamuis ardeæ potius id nomen conueniat." ("An ash-gray seabird, which goes up to the rivers and lakes …This [bird] is called in Italian galedor around Como, galetra around Lake Maggiore and elsewhere; [it is called] by the French gavian or mouette or glaumet, and by the Savoyards grebe or griaibe or beque or heyron, this [last] name applying rather to the heron.") Exactly the same names were reproduced in French two years later, without crediting Gesner, by the traveler and naturalist Pierre Belon (1524-64) in Portraits d'oyseaux, animaux, serpens, herbes, arbres, hommes et femmes, d'Arabie et Egypte (Paris, 1557), p. 35: "francois, Mouëtte cendrée, Gauian, Glammet [sic]. En Sauoye elle est nommée Grebe, ou Griaibe, Begue, Heyron." The bird described and illustrated by both Gesner and Belon, however, is unmistakably a seagull, probably the common gull Larus canus. Later attestations show that Gesner recorded the name more or less accurately, but assigned it to the wrong bird. The word was applied correctly in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert, in the article grebe (vol. 7 [1757], p. 903), presumably by the naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton; this text may have been the basis for the use of the word in English. Forms of grèbe in the Franco-Provençal of Switzerland are recorded in the Glossaire des patois de la Suisse Romande (vol. 8, p. 707). Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (vol. 21, p. 246) also gives forms of the word in Lyon (grèpe) and Haut-Dauphiné (glẹ̄be), as well as an apparently isolated word guerbe meaning "loon" in the French dialect of Bessin, Normandy. Efforts to etymologize the Franco-Provençal word are speculative. The Glossaire suggests a possible relationship with dialectal grẹ́bo "of more than one color, variegated," itself of obscure origin.

First Known Use

1766, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing grebe

• sun-grebe

Rhymes for grebe

• glebe
• caribe

Kids Definition

grebe

noun

ˈgrēb 

: any of a family of swimming and diving birds closely related to the loons