Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Sandpiper \Sand"pi`per\, n.
   1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline
      game birds belonging to {Tringa}, {Actodromas},
      {Ereunetes}, and various allied genera of the family
      {Tringid[ae]}.

   Note: The most important North American species are the
         pectoral sandpiper ({Tringa maculata}), called also
         {brownback}, {grass snipe}, and {jacksnipe}; the
         red-backed, or black-breasted, sandpiper, or dunlin
         ({T. alpina}); the purple sandpiper ({T. maritima}: the
         red-breasted sandpiper, or knot ({T. canutus}); the
         semipalmated sandpiper ({Ereunetes pusillus}); the
         spotted sandpiper, or teeter-tail ({Actitis
         macularia}); the buff-breasted sandpiper ({Tryngites
         subruficollis}), and the Bartramian sandpiper, or
         upland plover. See under {Upland}. Among the European
         species are the dunlin, the knot, the ruff, the
         sanderling, and the common sandpiper ({Actitis, or
         Tringoides, hypoleucus}), called also {fiddler},
         {peeper}, {pleeps}, {weet-weet}, and {summer snipe}.
         Some of the small plovers and tattlers are also called
         sandpipers.

   2. (Zo["o]l.) A small lamprey eel; the pride.

   {Curlew sandpiper}. See under {Curlew}.

   {Stilt sandpiper}. See under {Stilt}.

Source : WordNet®

sandpiper
     n : any of numerous usually small wading birds having a slender
         bill and piping call; closely related to the plovers