Ea"gle (?), n. [OE.
egle, F. aigle, fr. L.
aquila; prob. named from its color, fr. aquilus dark-colored, brown; cf. Lith. aklas blind. Cf.
Aquiline.]
1.
(Zoöl.) Any large, rapacious bird of the Falcon family, esp. of the genera
Aquila and Haliæetus. The eagle is remarkable for strength, size, graceful figure, keenness of vision, and extraordinary flight.
The most noted species are the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaëtus); the
imperial eagle of Europe (A. mogilnik or imperialis); the American bald eagle (Haliæetus
leucocephalus); the European sea eagle (H. albicilla); and the great
harpy eagle (Thrasaetus
harpyia). The figure of the eagle,
as the king
of birds, is commonly used as an heraldic emblem, and also for standards and emblematic devices. See Bald eagle, Harpy, and Golden eagle.
2. A gold coin of the United
States, of the value of ten
dollars.
3. (Astron.) A northern constellation, containing Altair, a star of the first magnitude. See Aquila.
4. The figure of
an eagle borne as an emblem on the
standard of the ancient Romans, or so used upon
the seal or
standard of any people.
Though the Roman eagle shadow thee.
Tennyson. &fist; Some modern nations, as the United
States, and France under the Bonapartes, have adopted the eagle as their national emblem. Russia, Austria, and Prussia have for an emblem
a double-headed eagle.
Bald eagle. See Bald eagle. -- Bold eagle. See under Bold. -- Double eagle, a gold coin of the United
States worth twenty
dollars. -- Eagle hawk (Zoöl.), a large, crested, South American hawk of the genus
Morphnus. -- Eagle owl (Zoöl.), any large owl
of the genus Bubo, and allied genera; as the American great horned owl (Bubo Virginianus), and the allied European species (B. maximus). See Horned owl. -- Eagle ray (Zoöl.), any large species of ray of the genus Myliobatis (esp. M.
aquila). -- Eagle vulture
(Zoöl.), a large West African bid (Gypohierax
Angolensis), intermediate, in several respects, between the eagles and vultures.
Hear it pronounced