Definition of "albatross" in English

noun

1. Any of various large seabirds of the family Diomedeidae ranging widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings.

2. Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as puffins.

3. (golf) A double eagle, or three under par on any one hole, except a par 3 hole.

4. (figurative) A long-term impediment, burden, or curse.

   • 2006 March 13, Richard Lugar, speech to the Brookings Institution, […] energy is the albatross of U.S. national security.