- any of several large, colorful parakeets of the genus Platycercus, of Australia.
Origin of rosella
First recorded in 1820–30; alteration of Rosehill, district in southeast Australia
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for rosella
Rosella did not answer when Trevor ceased speaking, and there was a long silence.
He was as new as an overnight daisy, and as destructible in Rosella's hands.
But no stress of weather could have kept Rosella at home that evening.
And then it was, and thus it was, that Rosella took her resolve.
Rosella did as she was told, but the ogress was so angry she was going to eat her.Italian Popular Tales
Thomas Frederick Crane
- any of various Australian parrots of the genus Platycercus, such as P. elegans (crimson rosella), often kept as cage birds
C19: probably alteration of Rose-hiller, after Rose Hill, Parramatta, near Sydney
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012