From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Birdspetrelpet‧rel /ˈpetrəl/ noun [countable]HBBa black and white sea birdExamples from the Corpuspetrel• Thomas Campbell Eyton wanted as many petrels as Gould could capture for a monograph on the Procellaridae.• By day, a colony of petrels or shearwaters is a quiet, apparently deserted place.• We identified two different types of albatross, four species of petrel, and a tern.• Brown and McCormick's skuas and Wilson's petrels fly as far as temperatelatitudes of the northernhemisphere.• Fulmars, gannets and an occasionalstormpetrelperformedaerobatics in our wake.• But my children were as amazed at this strangepetrel with its eerie call as I had hoped they would be.• In summerpetrelsnest in crevices in the rocks, and colonies of penguinsbreed on nearbyislands.Originpetrel(1600-1700) Perhaps from Saint Peter