raven – English noun declension

English noun forms of raven

Noun: raven
Singularraven
Pluralravens

Sample Sentences

  • Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull. [c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D3, verso:]
  • Thus like the ſad preſaging Rauen that tolls / The ſick mans paſſeport in her hollovv beake, / And in the ſhadovv of the ſilent night / Doth ſhake contagion from her ſable vvings; / Vex'd and tormented runnes poore Barabas / VVith fatall curſes tovvards theſe Chriſtians. [c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act II, signature D2, recto:]
  • [T]he Danes bare in their Enſigne a Raven vvrought (by report) in needle-vvorke, by the daughters of Lothbroke that is, Leather-breech, […] [1610, William Camden, “Denshire”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC, page 207:]
  • Hee beareth Or, a Rauen Proper, by the name of Corbet. [1610, John Guillim, “Sect[ion] III. Chap[ter] XX.”, in A Display of Heraldrie: […], London: […] William Hall for Raphe Mab, →OCLC, page 162:]
  • As from an ancestral oak / Two empty ravens sound their clarion, / Yell by yell, and croak by croak, / When they scent the noonday smoke / Of fresh human carrion: […] [1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Similes”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 189:]
  • If the men of Thule have ceased to be champions, and to spread the banquet for the raven, the women have not forgotten the arts that lifted them of yore into queens and prophetesses. [1822, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in The Pirate. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 117:]
  • All is silent and melancholy, unless when the mournful bleeting of the hemmed in Deer reaches your ear, or the dismal scream of an Eagle or a Raven is heard, as the foul bird rises, disturbed by your approach, from the carcass on which it was allaying its craving appetite. [1831, John James Audubon, “A Flood”, in Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America; […], Edinburgh: Adam Black, […], →OCLC, pages 157–158:]
  • The raven, with his head very much on one side, and his bright eye shining like a diamond, preserved a thoughtful silence for a few seconds, and then replied in a voice so hoarse and distant, that it seemed to come through his thick feathers rather than out of his mouth. "Halloa, halloa, halloa! What's the matter here! Keep up your spirits. Never say die. Bow wow wow. I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil. Hurrah!" [1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 6.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 270:]
  • "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, / Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore— / Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" / Quoth the raven, "Nevermore." [1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 144:]
  • There comes Poe with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, / Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths fudge, / […] / Who has written some things quite the best of their kind, / But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind, […] [1848 October 21, [James Russell Lowell], “A Fable for the Critics”, in […] A Fable for Critics; or […] A Glance at a Few of our Literary Progenies […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam […], →OCLC, page 57:]
  • A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, / Croak'd, and she thought 'he spies a field of death; / For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea, / Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court, / Begin to slay the folk, and spoil the land.' [1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 232:]
  • Near-synonyms: ebony, onyx
  • A lone man walks the shores of Nantucket; his noble form is slightly bent, and with the raven of his hair is blended the faintest tinge of gray, though he is evidently a man to whom the meridian of life is yet far in the distance; […] [1859, Ferna Vale, “Alone”, in Natalie; or, A Gem among the Sea-weeds, Andover, Mass.: […] W[arren] F. Draper, →OCLC, page 314:]
  • The horned Indian Raven or Topau, called the Rhinoceros Bird [section heading]. This horned Bird as it caſts a ſtrong ſmell, ſo it hath a foul look, much exceeding the European Raven in bigneſs. [1678, Francis Willughby, “Birds of the Crow-kind”, in John Ray, transl., The Ornithology of Francis Willughby […] Wherein All the Birds hitherto Known, Being Reduced into a Method Sutable to Their Natures, are Accurately Described. […], London: […] A[ndrew] C[lark] for John Martyn, printer to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, book II (Of Land-fowl), 2nd part (Of Birds with Streighter or Less Hooked Bills), §. VIII, page 127:]
  • VVhen the great ſea-raven, as Jacobſon informs us, comes to take avvay their young, the puffins boldly oppoſe him. […] As ſoon as the raven approaches, the puffin catches him under the throat vvith its beak, and ſticks its clavvs into his breaſt, vvhich makes the raven, vvith a loud ſcreaming, attempt to get avvay; […] [1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Auk, Puffin, and Other Birds of the Penguin Kind”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VI, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, pages 92–93:]
  • Along the wild mountains night-ravens were yelling— / They bodingly presaged destruction and woe. [1808 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Victoria”, in William Michael Rossetti, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: […], revised edition, volume II, London: E[dward] Moxon, Son, & Co., […], published 1870, →OCLC, stanza I, page 500:]
  • Behold the vvarrior bright vvith Daniſh ſpoils!— / The raven droops his vvings—and hark! the trumpet, / Exulting, ſpeaks the reſt. [1740 August 12 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [James Thomson, David Mallet], Alfred: A Masque. […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1740, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii, page 36:]
  • Ric[hard]. Novv y'ave ſpoke it halfe; 'tis ſinking I muſt treate of; / Your ſhips are all ſunke. / […] / M[istress] Foſt[er]. O thou fatall Raven; Let me pull thine eyes out for this / Sad croake. [c. 1610–1614 (date written), William Rowley; [possibly also Thomas Heywood, George Wilkins], A New Wonder, a Woman never Vext. A Pleasant Conceited Comedy: […], London: […] G[eorge] P[urslowe] for Francis Constable, […], published 1632, →OCLC, Act III, page 47:]
  • Mal[icorn]. O my dear Lord, upon this onely day / Depends the ſeries of your follovving Fate: / Think your good Genius has aſſum'd my ſhape / In this Prophetick doom. / Guiſe. Peace croaking Raven, / I'le ſeize him firſt, then make him a led Monarch; […] [1682 December 15 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, The Duke of Guise. A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for R[ichard] Bentley […], and J[acob] Tonson […], published 1683, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 53:]
  • Some ravens have alvvays indeed croaked out this kind of ſong. They have a malignant delight in preſaging miſchief vvhen they are not employed in doing it: they are miſerable and diſapointed at every inſtance of the public proſperity. [1769, [Edmund Burke], Observations on a Late State of the Nation, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 33:]

Etymology

From Middle English raven, reven (“raven (Corvus corax); carrion crow (Corvus corone); rook (Corvus frugilegus) (?); the constellation Corvus; gall nuts of the Aleppo oak (Quercus infectoria) used to make black ink”), from Old English hræfn (“raven”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn (“raven”), from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz (“raven”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to crackle; to rattle”) or *ḱer- (“to croak, crow”), probably ultimately onomatopoeic, referring to the bird’s call. See: Old English Nouns 'hræfn'.

Verbs referencing "raven"

German Nouns Rabe, Icelandic Nouns hrafn, Old Norse Nouns hrafn, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns ramn, English Nouns waldrapp.