fen nightingale

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English

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Etymology

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From their continued croaking at night.

Noun

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fen nightingale (plural fen nightingales)

  1. (UK, slang, archaic) A frog or toad.
    • 1934, Neil Bell, Bredon and Sons, page 15:
      Tom Spence is a dom fule and doesn't know a fen nightingale from a natterjack.

References

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  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary