for the birds
English
editEtymology
editOriginally United States Army slang, said to be from birds pecking at cattle and horse dung.[1][2][3]
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fə ðə ˈbɜːdz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /fəɹ ðə ˈbɜɹdz/
Audio (General American): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dz
Adjective
editfor the birds (not comparable)
- (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."
Related terms
editTranslations
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References
edit- ^ 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.
- ^ “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.
- ^ Gary Martin (1997–) “For the birds”, in The Phrase Finder, retrieved 16 November 2016.
Further reading
edit- For the Birds (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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