English
bird
see also: Bird
Pronunciation
  • (RP) enPR: bû(r)d, IPA: /bɜːd/
  • (America) IPA: /bɜɹd/, [bɝˑɖ]
    • (New York City, Southern US, dated) IPA: [bəɪd]
  • (Australia) enPR: bû(r)d, IPA: /bɘːd/
  • (India) IPA: /bɜd/
Etymology 1

From Middle English bird, brid, from Old English bridd, of uncertain origin (see Old English bridd for more).

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.

Noun

bird (plural birds)

  1. 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.
  2. (cooking, slang) A chicken or turkey used as food.
    Pitch in and help me stuff the bird if you want Thanksgiving dinner.
  3. (slang) A man, fellow. [from mid-19th c.]
    • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
      "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, published 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.
  4. (UK, Ireland, colloquial) 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.
    1. (UK, Ireland, colloquial, by extension) A girlfriend. [from early 20th c.]
      Mike went out with his bird last night.
  5. (slang) An aircraft.
  6. (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?
  7. (obsolete) A chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling.
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC ↗, Matthew viij:[20], folio x, recto ↗:
      […] the foxes have holes, and the brydds of the aier have nestes, but [t]he sonne of the man hath not where onto leye his heede: […]
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene i]:
      That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.
  8. (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.
  9. (with definite article) The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.
    Synonyms: 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.
  10. A yardbird.
  11. (slang, US) A kilogram of cocaine.
    Synonyms: chicken, brick
  12. (slang, Canada, Philippines) A penis.
  13. (UK, slang) Jailtime; time in prison.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

bird (birds, present participle birding; simple past and past participle birded)

  1. (intransitive) To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
  2. (intransitive) To catch or shoot birds; to hunt birds.
  3. (intransitive, figuratively) To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
  4. (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.
Adjective

bird (comparative birdier, superlative birdiest)

  1. (Canada, colloquial, of a school or university course) Able to be passed with very little work; having the nature of a bird course.
Etymology 2

Originally Cockney rhyming slang, shortened from bird-lime for "time".

Noun

bird (uncountable)

  1. (slang) A prison sentence.
    He’s doing bird.
Synonyms Verb

bird (birds, present participle birding; simple past and past participle birded)

  1. (transitive, slang) To bring into prison, to roof.
Translations
  • French: taule
  • German: absitzen im Cafe Viereck
Bird
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. (jazz) Charlie Parker (1920–1955), Jazz saxophonist.


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