Wiktionary

for the birds

English

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WOTD – 10 May 2025

Etymology

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Originally United States Army slang, said to be from birds pecking at cattle and horse dung.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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for the birds (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic, originally US military slang, informal) Not deserving serious consideration; unimportant; useless, worthless. [from 1940s]
    Synonyms: pointless; see also Thesaurus:insignificant, Thesaurus:worthless
    • 1944 October 20, “Today’s guest star”, in Dixon Evening Telegraph, number 247, Dixon, Ill.: The B. F. Shaw Printing Company, →OCLC, page 7, column 7:
      Sgt. Buck Erickson, Camp Ellis, Ill., News: "Don't take too seriously the belief that we have football at Camp Ellis solely for the entertainment of the personnel—that's strictly for the birds. The Army is a winner … The Army like to win—that's the most fortunate thing in the world for America."
    • 1946 September 2, “Radio: Early Bird”, in Time‎[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-09-14:
      Burly Arthur [Godfrey] works hard. Six days a week, 52 weeks a year, he "yaps at a mike" from 6 to 7:45 a.m. over Manhattan's WABC. […] Says he: "This gettin' up at 5 o'clock is something for the birds."
    • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 1, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 4:
      The advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot-shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. […] And underneath the guy on the horse's picture, it always says: "Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men." Strictly for the birds. They don't do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school.
    • 2004 February 15, Colin Brown, “Council tax to be replaced by new levy on incomes”, in The Daily Telegraph‎[2], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-03-01:
      One ally of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "This is blue-sky thinking, but it is strictly for the birds. It is going to cost billions."
    • 2015 June 14, “Saints, Pelicans owner Tom Benson confident as trial closes”, in ESPN‎[3], archived from the original on 2016-04-01:
      New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson expressed confidence on his way out of the courtroom Friday as the eight-day trial to determine his mental competency came to a close. […] When asked if the trial has taken a lot out of him, Benson said, "Ahh, no, man. You know, it's not fun, it's not any fun. To have your kids turn against you, that's for the birds."
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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Morris Finder (1957 October) “‘For the Birds’”, in Elliott V. K. Dobbie [et al.], editors, American Speech, volume XXXII, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 240:
    The expression for the birds, […] first came to my attention early in 1942, when I entered the U.S. Army. […] Soldiers from rural areas gave what seems to me a plausible explanation of this latter expression: the metaphor alludes to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle, a scene common in farm areas and, until recent years, in city alleys.
  2. ^ “for the birds” under “bird, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025; “for the birds, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ Gary Martin (1997–) “For the birds”, in The Phrase Finder, retrieved 16 November 2016.

Further reading

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