- the thick-walled part of a bird's stomach, in which hard food is broken up by muscular action and contact with grit and small stones
- informal the stomach and entrails generally
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
giz•zard /ˈgɪzɚd/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Anatomy, Zoologythe thick-walled, muscular lower stomach of many birds and reptiles, which grinds partially digested food.
giz•zard
(giz′ərd),USA pronunciation n. [Zool.]
- Anatomy, ZoologyAlso called ventriculus. a thick-walled, muscular pouch in the lower stomach of many birds and reptiles that grinds food, often with the aid of ingested stones or grit.
- Anatomy, ZoologyAlso called gastric mill. a similar structure in the foregut of arthropods and several other invertebrates, often lined with chitin and small teeth.
- Zoologythe innards or viscera collectively, esp. the intestine and stomach.
- Iranian; compare Persian jigar liver
- Vulgar Latin *gigerium; compare Latin gigeria, gizeria giblets, perh. ultimately
- Old French giser, gezier (French gésier)
- Middle English giser 1325–75
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
gizzard /ˈɡɪzəd/ n
'gizzard' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
crop
- giblets
- ventriculus
- colon
- foregut
- gastric mill
- giblet
- gizzard shad
- midgut
- proventriculus