Bird definition | Dictionary.com

Synonyms

boo, catcall, hoot, callow, sedentary, airplane, blackbird, crow, eagle, fledgling, flicker, flier

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Bird - 15 dictionary results

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bird

[burd]

–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.

Sports.

a.	clay pigeon.

b.	a shuttlecock.

4.	Slang. a person, esp. one having some peculiarity: He's a queer bird.

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

6.	Cookery. 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.

the bird, Slang.

a.	disapproval, as of a performance, by hissing, booing, etc.: He got the bird when he came out on stage.

b.	scoffing or ridicule: He was trying to be serious, but we all gave him the bird.

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

–verb (used without object)

11.	to catch or shoot birds.

12.	to bird-watch.

—Idioms

13.	a little bird, Informal. a secret source of information: A little bird told me that today is your birthday.

14.	bird in the hand, a thing possessed in fact as opposed to a thing about which one speculates: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Also, bird in hand.

15.	birds of a feather, people with interests, opinions, or backgrounds in common: Birds of a feather flock together.

16.	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.

17.	for the birds, Slang. useless or worthless; not to be taken seriously: Their opinions on art are for the birds. That pep rally is for the birds.

18.	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.

19.	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.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME byrd, bryd, OE brid(d) young bird, chick

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Language Translation for : Bird

Spanish:

ave, pájaro,

German:

der Vogel,

Japanese:

鳥

View 29 other languages »

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Bird

[burd]

–noun

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Par⋅ker

[pahr-ker]

–noun

1.	Charles Christopher, Jr. (“Bird”), 1920–55, U.S. jazz saxophonist and composer.

2.	Dorothy (Rothschild), 1893–1967, U.S. author.

3.	Sir Gilbert, 1862–1932, Canadian novelist and politician in England.

4.	Horatio William, 1863–1919, U.S. composer, organist, and teacher.

5.	John, 1729–75, American Revolutionary patriot.

6.	Matthew, 1504–75, English theologian.

7.	Quanah. Quanah (def. 1).

8.	Theodore, 1810–60, U.S. preacher, theologian, and reformer.

9.	a male given name.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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bird (bûrd) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. Any of various warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrates of the class Aves, having forelimbs modified to form wings.
2. Such an animal hunted as game.
3. Such an animal, especially a chicken or turkey, used as food: put the bird in the oven.
4. A loud sound expressing disapproval; a raspberry.
5. Discharge from employment: lost a big sale and nearly got the bird.
See clay pigeon.
Sports See shuttlecock.
Slang A rocket, guided missile, satellite, or airplane.
Slang A person, especially one who is odd or remarkable: a sly old bird.
Chiefly British Slang A young woman.
Slang
1. A loud sound expressing disapproval; a raspberry.
2. Discharge from employment: lost a big sale and nearly got the bird.
An obscene gesture of anger, defiance, or derision made by pointing or jabbing the middle finger upward.

intr.v. bird·ed, bird·ing, birds

To observe and identify birds in their natural surroundings.
To trap, shoot, or catch birds.

[Middle English, from Old English brid, young bird.]

bird'ing n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Bird (bûrd) Pronunciation Key
American basketball player and coach. As a forward for the Boston Celtics (1979-1992), he helped lead the team to three world championships between 1981 and 1986 and was named the National Basketball Association's most valuable player three times.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

clay pigeon
n. A clay disk thrown as a flying target for skeet and trapshooting. Also called bird.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

shut·tle·cock   (shŭt'l-kŏk') Pronunciation Key
n.   A small rounded piece of cork or rubber with a conical crown of feathers or plastic, used in badminton. Also called bird, birdie.

v.   tr. shut·tle·cocked, shut·tle·cock·ing, shut·tle·cocks
To throw or send back and forth like a shuttlecock.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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bird (1)

O.E. bridd, originally "young bird" (the usual O.E. for "bird" being fugol), of uncertain origin with no cognates in any other Gmc. language. The suggestion that it is somehow connected by umlaut to brood and breed is dismissed by OED as "quite inadmissible." Metathesis of -r- and -i- occurred 15c. Fig. sense of "secret source of information" is from 1546. Slang meaning "middle finger held up in a rude gesture" is from 1860s expression give the big bird "to hiss someone like a goose," kept alive in vaudeville slang with sense of "to greet someone with boos, hisses, and catcalls" (1922), transferred 1960s to the "up yours" hand gesture (the rigid finger representing the hypothetical object to be inserted) on notion of defiance and contempt. Gesture itself seems to be much older (the human anatomy section of a 12c. Latin bestiary in Cambridge describes the middle finger as that "by means of which the pursuit of dishonour is indicated"). Bird-brain (1943) is suggestive of flightiness. Bird-cage is from 1490. Bird's-eye view is from 1762. For the birds recorded from 1944, supposedly in allusion to birds eating from droppings of horses and cattle.

"A byrde yn honde ys better than three yn the wode." [c.1530]

bird (2)

"maiden, young girl," c.1300, confused with burd (q.v.), but felt by later writers as a fig. use of bird (1). Modern slang meaning "young woman" is from 1915, and probably arose independent of the older word.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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bird
noun
1.	warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
2.	the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food
3.	informal terms for a (young) woman [syn: dame]
4.	a cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt [syn: boo]
5.	badminton equipment consisting of a ball of cork or rubber with a crown of feathers [syn: shuttlecock]
verb
1.	watch and study birds in their natural habitat

bird

In addition to the idioms beginning with bird, also see 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.

bird (bûrd) Pronunciation Key
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.

Our Living Language : 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.

Bird City, KS (city, FIPS 6825) Location: 39.74994 N, 101.53166 W
Population (1990): 467 (293 housing units)
Area: 5.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 67731

Bird Island, MN (city, FIPS 6076) Location: 44.76480 N, 94.89403 W
Population (1990): 1326 (552 housing units)
Area: 4.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 55310

Bird In Hand, PA Zip code(s): 17505

White Bird, ID (city, FIPS 87310) Location: 45.76292 N, 116.29894 W
Population (1990): 108 (74 housing units)
Area: 0.2 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 83554

U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau
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Bird

A"ves\, n. pl. [L., pl. of avis bird.] (Zo["o]l.) The class of Vertebrata that includes the birds.

Note: Aves, or birds, have a complete double circulation, oviparous, reproduction, front limbs peculiarly modified as wings; and they bear feathers. All existing birds have a horny beak, without teeth; but some Mesozoic fossil birds (Odontornithes) had conical teeth inserted in both jaws. The principal groups are: Carinat[ae], including all existing flying birds; Ratit[ae], including the ostrich and allies, the apteryx, and the extinct moas; Odontornithes, or fossil birds with teeth.

Note: The ordinary birds are classified largely by the structure of the beak and feet, which are in direct relation to their habits. See Beak, Bird, Odontonithes.

Bird

Bird\ (b[~e]rd), n. [OE. brid, bred, bird, young bird, bird, AS. bridd young bird. [root]92.]

1. Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2).

That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. --Shak.

The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. --Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).

2. (Zo["o]l.) A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves.

3. Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird.

4. Fig.: A girl; a maiden.

And by my word! the bonny bird In danger shall not tarry. --Campbell.

Arabian bird, the phenix.

Bird of Jove, the eagle.

Bird of Juno, the peacock.

Bird louse (Zo["o]l.), a wingless insect of the group Mallophaga, of which the genera and species are very numerous and mostly parasitic upon birds. -- Bird mite (Zo["o]l.), a small mite (genera Dermanyssus, Dermaleichus and allies) parasitic upon birds. The species are numerous.

Bird of passage, a migratory bird.

Bird spider (Zo["o]l.), a very large South American spider (Mygale avicularia). It is said sometimes to capture and kill small birds.

Bird tick (Zo["o]l.), a dipterous insect parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies), usually winged.