Noun
media magpies will no doubt seize upon the president's latest gaffe and blow it all out of proportion Adjective
a pack rat whose cramped apartment is filled with a magpie collection of books, old newspapers, and tchotchkes
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
This man, of course, is John Galliano, creative director of Dior at the time and, by general consensus, one of the world’s great fashion designers, acclaimed for his theatrical magpie vision and the maximalist joie de vivre of his clothes.—Maya Singer, Vogue, 6 Mar. 2024 Designers in the Netherlands and an entrepreneur in Sweden tried to build their own machines; a few hobbyists even managed to teach magpies to bring bottle caps to back-yard machines.—Ben Crair, The New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2024 Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata – Loud and colorful, these magpies will eat almost anything.—Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Mar. 2024 Any magpie with an eye for sparkle relishes awards season, a time when tens of millions of dollars in precious gems and metals roam the red carpet.—Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2024 Peter is such a magpie for a great, telling piece of theater.—Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 2023 Only a few non-human animals have passed the mirror test, including great apes, bottlenose dolphins, elephants, magpies and crows.—Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2023 Persimmons ripen on trees nearby and magpies flit around the ancient Altar of the Sun park across the street, where early risers often perform tai chi.—Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Oct. 2023 Nestled near the top of a sugar maple tree was a Eurasian magpie nest that resembled a cyberpunk porcupine, with thin metal rods sticking out in every direction.—Emily Anthes, New York Times, 13 July 2023
Adjective
The language and structure of King’s sermons, tapping into this magpie tradition of oral performance, had many sources.—Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024 Though the idiosyncratic fashions in the photos are undeniably of their age, their magpie referentiality makes the pictures seem contemporary.—Crispin Long, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2023 And sharp, human materials, including barbed wire and knitting needles, have previously been found in magpie domes, the scientists noted.—Emily Anthes, New York Times, 13 July 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'magpie.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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