a large bird of prey (= a bird that kills other creatures for food) that eats fish Topics Birdsc2鹗;鱼鹰 Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French ospres, apparently based on Latin ossifraga (mentioned by Pliny, the Roman senator and writer, and identified with the lammergeier ‘a large vulture’), from os ‘bone’ + frangere ‘to break’, probably because of the lammergeier's habit of dropping bones from a height to break them and reach the marrow.