(v. i.) Any one of numerous species of oscinine birds of the family Laniidae, having a strong hooked bill, toothed at the tip. Most shrikes are insectivorous, but the common European gray shrike (Lanius excubitor), the great northern shrike (L. borealis), and several others, kill mice, small birds, etc., and often impale them on thorns, and are, on that account called also butcher birds. See under Butcher.
Example Sentences:
(1) Oh yes, and when it all gets on top of you, you can always calm yourself with Whitehorn's words on puddings: 'In the play The Shrike, the hero is entertaining his girl to dinner and she says: "What's for dessert?"
(2) Isolations of eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus were made from the heart of a loggerhead shrike (Lanius excubitor), Tensaw virus from the brain of a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and Keystone virus from the heart of a bluejay (Cyanocitta cristata).