Car·di·nal, n.
 1. R. C. Ch. One of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the pope's council, or the sacred college.
    The clerics of the supreme Chair are called Cardinals, as undoubtedly adhering more nearly to the hinge by which all things are moved.   --Pope Leo IX.
 Note: ☞ The cardinals are appointed by the pope. Since the time of Sixtus V., their number can never exceed seventy (six of episcopal rank, fifty priests, fourteen deacons), and the number of cardinal priests and deacons is seldom full. When the papel chair is vacant a pope is elected by the college of cardinals from among themselves. The cardinals take precedence of all dignitaries except the pope. The principal parts of a cardinal's costume are a red cassock, a rochet, a short purple mantle, and a red hat with a small crown and broad brim, with cords and tessels of a special pattern hanging from it.
 2. A woman's short cloak with a hood.
    Where's your cardinal! Make haste.   --Lloyd.
 3. Mulled red wine.
 Cardinal bird, or Cardinal grosbeak Zool., an American song bird (Cardinalis cardinalis, or Cardinalis Virginianus), of the family Fringillidæ, or finches of which the male has a bright red plumage, and both sexes have a high, pointed crest on its head; -- it is also called the northern cardinal or eastern cardinal.  The males have loud and musical notes resembling those of a fife.  Other related species are also called cardinal birds.
 Cardinal flower Bot., an herbaceous plant (Lobelia cardinalis) bearing brilliant red flowers of much beauty.
 Cardinal red, a color like that of a cardinal's cassock, hat, etc.; a bright red, darker than scarlet, and between scarlet and crimson.

 ◄ ►


 Gros·beak n.  Zool. One of various species of finches having a large, stout beak. The common European grosbeak or hawfinch is Coccothraustes vulgaris.
 Note: ☞ Among the best known American species are the rose-breasted (Habia Ludoviciana); the blue (Guiraca cœrulea); the pine (Pinicola enucleator); and the evening grosbeak. See Hawfinch, and Cardinal grosbeak, Evening grosbeak, under Cardinal and Evening. [Written also grossbeak.]

 ◄ ►


 cardinal grosbeak
      n : crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red
          plumage in the male [syn: cardinal, {Richmondena
          Cardinalis, Cardinalis cardinalis, redbird]