Bird Definition & Meaning

American

British

Scientific

More Idioms

Closer Look

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms bird 1 American [burd] / bɜrd /

noun

1. any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.

2. a fowl or game bird.

3. Sports.

   1. clay pigeon.

   2. a shuttlecock.

4. Slang. a person, especially one having some peculiarity.

   He's a queer bird.

5. Informal. an aircraft, spacecraft, or guided missile.

6. Cooking. a thin piece of meat, poultry, or fish rolled around a stuffing and braised.

   veal birds.

7. Southern U.S. (in hunting) a bobwhite.

8. Chiefly British Slang. a girl or young woman.

9. Archaic. the young of any fowl.

10. Slang. the bird,

    1. disapproval, as of a performance, by hissing, booing, etc..

       He got the bird when he came out on stage.

    2. scoffing or ridicule.

       He was trying to be serious, but we all gave him the bird.

    3. an obscene gesture of contempt made by raising the middle finger.

verb (used without object)

1. to catch or shoot birds.

2. to bird-watch.

idioms

1. bird in the hand, a thing possessed in fact as opposed to a thing about which one speculates: Also bird in hand.

   A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

2. birds of a feather, people with interests, opinions, or backgrounds in common.

   Birds of a feather flock together.

3. for the birds, useless or worthless; not to be taken seriously.

   Their opinions on art are for the birds. That pep rally is for the birds.

4. the birds and the bees, basic information about sex and reproduction.

   It was time to talk to the boy about the birds and the bees.

5. a little bird, a secret source of information.

   A little bird told me that today is your birthday.

6. kill two birds with one stone, to achieve two aims with a single effort.

   She killed two birds with one stone by shopping and visiting the museum on the same trip.

7. eat like a bird, to eat sparingly.

   She couldn't understand why she failed to lose weight when she was, as she said, eating like a bird.

Bird 2 American [burd] / bɜrd /

noun

1. Larry, born 1956, U.S. basketball player.

bird 1 British / bɜːd /

noun

1. any warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrate of the class Aves , characterized by a body covering of feathers and forelimbs modified as wings. Birds vary in size between the ostrich and the humming bird

2. informal a person (usually preceded by a qualifying adjective, as in the phrases rare bird, odd bird, clever bird )

3. slang a girl or young woman, esp one's girlfriend

4. slang prison or a term in prison (esp in the phrase do bird ; shortened from birdlime , rhyming slang for time )

5. something definite or certain

6. informal the person in question has fled or escaped

7. euphemistic sex and sexual reproduction

8. people with the same characteristics, ideas, interests, etc

9. informal

   1. to be fired or dismissed

   2. (esp of a public performer) to be hissed at, booed, or derided

10. informal to tell someone rudely to depart; scoff at; hiss

11. to accomplish two things with one action

12. without resistance or difficulty

13. a (supposedly) unknown informant

    a little bird told me it was your birthday

14. informal deserving of disdain or contempt; not important

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Bird 2 British / bɜːd /

noun

1. nickname of (Charlie) Parker

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 bird Scientific / bûrd /

1. Any of numerous warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals of the class Aves. Birds have wings for forelimbs, a body covered with feathers, a hard bill covering the jaw, and a four-chambered heart.

bird More Idioms

More idioms and phrases containing bird

• catbird seat
• early bird catches the worm
• eat like a bird
• for the birds
• free as a bird
• kill two birds with one stone
• little bird told me
• naked as a jaybird
• rare bird

Closer Look

It is generally believed that birds are descended from dinosaurs and probably evolved from them during the Jurassic Period. While most paleontologists believe that birds evolved from a small dinosaur called the theropod, which in turn evolved from the thecodont, a reptile from the Triassic Period, other paleontologists believe that birds and dinosaurs both evolved from the thecodont. There are some who even consider the bird to be an actual dinosaur. According to this view, the bird is an avian dinosaur, and the older dinosaur a nonavian dinosaur. Although there are variations of thought on the exact evolution of birds, the similarities between birds and dinosaurs are striking and undeniable. Small meat-eating dinosaurs and primitive birds share about twenty characteristics that neither group shares with any other kind of animal; these include tubular bones, the position of the pelvis, the shape of the shoulder blades, a wishbone-shaped collarbone, and the structure of the eggs. Dinosaurs had scales, and birds have modified scales—their feathers—and scaly feet. Some dinosaurs also may have had feathers; a recently discovered fossil of a small dinosaur indicates that it had a featherlike covering. In fact, some primitive fossil birds and small meat-eating dinosaurs are so similar that it is difficult to tell them apart based on their skeletons alone.

Other Word Forms

• birdless adjective
• birdlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of bird

First recorded before 900; Middle English byrd, bryd, Old English brid(d) (Northumbrian dialect bird ) “young bird, chick”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"I hate any kind of pollution to be honest, there's blue and green algae here, there's bird flu, ducks and swans dying."

From BBC

British wildlife will replace historical characters on the next series of Bank of England banknotes - and the public will get their say on which animals and birds will appear.

From BBC

Cars zoom by on Main Street, and two birds chirp to each other from different branches of the same tall tree.

From Literature

This dinosaur belonged to a peculiar group of bird like theropods called alvarezsaurs.

From Science Daily

Kabachiy, a manager of cultural projects whose grandparents came from villages, said she had been soothed by nature, including the singing of birds in trees and the camaraderie of villagers.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• fowl

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.