bird
EnglishEdit
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PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bû(r)d, IPA(key): /bɜːd/
- (General American) IPA(key): /bɝd/, [bɝɖ]
- (Indian English) IPA(key): /bɜd/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English brid, from Old English bridd (“chick, baby bird”), of uncertain origin and relation; but its stock root is possibly onomatopoeic. Gradually replaced fowl as the most common term starting in the 14th century.
The "booing/jeering" and "vulgar hand gesture" senses derived from the expression “to give the big bird”, as in “to hiss someone like a goose”, dated in the mid‐18th Century.
NounEdit
bird (plural birds)
- A member of the class of animals Aves in the phylum Chordata, characterized by being warm-blooded, having feathers and wings usually capable of flight, having a beaked mouth, and laying eggs.
- Ducks and sparrows are birds.
- 2004, Bruce Whittington, Loucas Raptis, Seasons with Birds, page 50:
- The level below this is called the Phylum; birds belong to the Phylum Chordata, which includes all the vertebrate animals (the sub-phylum Vertebrata) and a few odds and ends.
- (cooking, slang) A chicken or turkey used as food.
- Pitch in and help me stuff the bird if you want Thanksgiving dinner.
- (slang) A man, fellow. [from the mid-19th c.]
- 1886, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's every boy's annual:
- He once took in his own mother, and was robbed by a 'pal,' who thought he was a doctor. Oh, he's a rare bird is 'Gentleman Joe'!
- 1926, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist[1]:
- "What I mean - I expect that old, red-headed bird at the office sent you round with no other purpose."
- 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, page 24:
- The door opened and a tall hungry-looking bird with a cane and a big nose came in neatly, shut the door behind him against the pressure of the door closer, marched over to the desk and placed a wrapped parcel on the desk.
- 2006, Jeff Fields, Terry Kay, A cry of angels
- "Ah, he's a funny bird," said Phaedra, throwing a leg over the sill.
- (UK, US, Australia, slang) A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.
- 1809, Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter
- And by my word! the bonny bird / In danger shall not tarry.
- 2013, Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' (in The Guardian, 13 September 2013)[2]
- The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.
- 2017, David Weigel, The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, W. W. Norton & Company.
- “All these fantastic birds, long hair, made up, false eyelashes and things, crowding round this group of scabby, spotty teenagers,” marveled Anderson.
- 1809, Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter
- (UK, Ireland, slang) A girlfriend. [from the early 20th c.]
- Mike went out with his bird last night.
- 2002, Mike Skinner (lyrics), “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:
- But all of a sudden though, just through the smoke / It's your bird laughing and joking with a bloke / Ain't just that either, as she moves closer / In a shape what looks like they're lovers, he's tonguing her!
- (slang) An airplane.
- (slang) A satellite.
- 1988, Satellite communications. Jan-Oct. 1988
- Deployment of the fourth bird "should ensure that Inmarsat has sufficient capacity in orbit in the early 1990s, taking into account the possibility of launch failures and the age of some of the spacecraft in the Inmarsat first generation system
- 1992, Cable Vision
- Will a government- backed APSTAR satellite knock out a planned AsiaSat II bird?
- 2015, John Fuller, Thor's Legions: Weather Support to the U.S. Air Force and Army, 1937-1987, Springer →ISBN, page 384
- In reality, the Air Force was never able to place a bird in orbit that quickly.
- 1988, Satellite communications. Jan-Oct. 1988
- (obsolete) A chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling.
- c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:
- That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.
- 1494–1536, William Tyndale, Bible, Matthew 8:20
- The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes.
- (UK, with definite article, especially in expressions such as 'give someone the bird') Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer.
- (with definite article) The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.
- Synonym: the finger
- 2002, The Advocate, "Flying fickle finger of faith", page 55.
- For whatever reason — and there are so many to chose from — they flipped the bird in the direction of the tinted windows of the Bushmobile.
- 2003, James Patterson and Peter De Jonge, The Beach House, Warner Books, page 305,
- Then she raised both hands above her shoulders and flipped him the bird with each one.
- A yardbird.
- (slang, US) A kilogram of cocaine.
- 2015 January 12, Lil Wayne (lyrics and music), “Sh!t”, in Sorry 4 the Wait 2[3], track 2:
- Never dirt on my knees
I'm just serving these fiends
Sell birds to the bees
I sell birds to the trees
SynonymsEdit
- (member of class Aves): fowl, avian
- (man): chap, bloke, guy
- (woman): broad, chick, dame, girl, lass
- See also Thesaurus:woman
- See also Thesaurus:girl
HyponymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:bird
Derived termsEdit
- a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- a little bird told me
- aquatic bird
- band birds
- beach birds
- birdaholic
- bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH)
- bird app
- bird ball
- bird bath
- birdbeak dogfish (Deania calcea)
- birdbolt
- birdbox
- birdbrain, bird brain
- birdbrained, bird-brained
- bird breeder's lung
- bird burst
- birdcage
- birdcage clock
- birdcall, bird-call, bird call
- birdcaller
- birdcall imitation, bird-call imitation, bird call imitation
- birdcall imitator, bird-call imitator, bird call imitator
- birdcalling
- birdcare
- birdcatcher, bird-catcher, bird catcher
- birdcatching, bird-catching, bird catching
- bird-catching net
- bird cherry
- bird-cherry ermine
- bird chorus
- bird cliff
- bird colonel
- bird colony
- bird course
- birdcrap
- bird dealer, bird-dealer
- bird-do
- bird dog, bird-dog, bird-dogged, bird-dogging
- birddom
- bird droppings
- bird dropping spider
- birdeater
- birdeen
- birder
- bird eye
- bird fancier's lung
- birdfeed
- bird feeder, birdfeeder
- birdfest
- bird flu
- birdfood, bird food
- bird-foot
- bird-footed dinosaur
- birdfucker
- bird-hatching
- bird-headed
- bird-hipped
- bird-hipped dinosaur
- birdhood
- birdhouse, bird-house, bird house
- birdie, birdied, birdieing
- birdikin
- birdiness
- bird influenza
- birding
- bird ingestion
- bird in the bosom
- bird in the hand, bird in hand
- birdish
- birdkeeper
- birdkind
- birdless
- birdlet
- birdlife
- birdlike, bird-like
- birdlime, birdlimed, birdliming
- birdlimer
- birdling
- birdlore
- bird louse
- birdlover, bird-lover, bird lover
- birdloving, bird-loving, bird loving
- birdly
- birdman
- birdmom
- birdnap, birdnapper
- birdness
- birdnest, birdnesting
- birdo
- bird of freedom
- bird of ill omen
- bird of Jove
- bird of Juno
- bird of one's own brain
- bird of paradise, bird-of-paradise
- bird-of-paradise flower
- bird of passage
- bird of peace
- bird of prey
- bird pepper
- birdproof
- bird-rich
- birds and bees
- birdseed
- birdseller, bird-seller
- bird's eye
- bird's-eye map
- bird's-eye maple, bird's eye maple (Acer saccharum)
- bird's-eye primrose
- bird's-eye speedwell
- bird's-eye view
- bird's-foot
- bird's-foot trefoil
- bird's-foot violet
- birdshit
- birdshot, bird shot
- birdsit
- birdsmouth
- bird's-nest orchid
- bird's-nest soup, bird's nest soup
- birds of a feather, birds of a feather flock together
- birds of paradise, birds-of-paradise
- birdsome
- birdsong
- bird spider
- bird's tooth
- birdstore, bird store
- birdstrike, bird strike
- Birds' Wedding
- birdsweet
- bird table
- birdtrap
- birdwalk
- birdwatcher, bird-watcher, bird watcher
- birdwatching, bird-watching, bird watching
- birdweed
- birdwing
- birdwise
- bird-witted
- birdwoman
- birdy
- clever bird
- cock bird, cock-bird
- dickeybird, dickybird
- do bird
- early bird
- eat like a bird
- European bird cherry
- fine feathers make fine birds
- flip the bird
- for the birds
- frigatebird, frigate bird
- full bird colonel
- funny bird
- gamebird farmer, game-bird farmer
- gamebird, game bird
- gay old bird
- get the bird
- give somebody the bird, give someone the bird
- Goliath birdeater
- hen bird
- hummingbird, humming-bird, humming bird
- iron bird
- kill two birds with one stone
- like a bird
- little bird
- migratory bird
- mockingbird
- odd bird
- old bird
- parson bird
- poë-bird, poë bird, poebird
- queer bird
- rare bird
- seabird
- shorebird, shore bird
- strange bird
- the bird has flown, the bird is flown
- the birds and the bees
- the early bird catches the worm
- the early bird gets the worm
- waterbird, water bird
TranslationsEdit
animal
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person
woman
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girlfriend
vulgar hand gesture
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DescendantsEdit
- → Esperanto: birdo
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
bird (third-person singular simple present birds, present participle birding, simple past and past participle birded)
- (intransitive) To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
- (intransitive) To catch or shoot birds; to hunt birds.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
- 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, OCLC 1008120557; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, OCLC 52009618, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- MAMMON: These day-owls.
SURLY: That are birding in men's purses
- MAMMON: These day-owls.
- (transitive, television) To transmit via satellite.
- 1995, David D. Pearce, Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media (page 43)
- Unless the TV crew has its own flyaway, the locals can still defeat a story they couldn't prevent reporters from covering by cutting it off at the pass, when it is being birded through their facilities.
- 2012, Yoel Cohen, Media Diplomacy (page 127)
- After being sent by fast car to Tel Aviv the cassettes would be 'birded' by satellite to the USA and London.
- 1995, David D. Pearce, Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media (page 43)
Etymology 2Edit
Originally Cockney rhyming slang, shortened from bird-lime for "time".
NounEdit
bird (uncountable)
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
prison sentence
VerbEdit
bird (third-person singular simple present birds, present participle birding, simple past and past participle birded)
- (transitive, slang) To bring into prison, to roof.
- 2017, ZK & Digga D (lyrics), CDM (music), “No Hook”:
- Free Criminal, he got birded
That's a L but I know he’ll firm it
I was vexed when I heard that verdict
TranslationsEdit
to bring into prison, to roof
ReferencesEdit
- Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “bird”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- bird on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Aves on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
- Aves on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
- bird at OneLook Dictionary Search