bird

noun

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.

a fowl or game bird.

Sports.

clay pigeon.

a shuttlecock.

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

Informal. an aircraft, spacecraft, or guided missile.

Cookery. a thin piece of meat, poultry, or fish rolled around a stuffing and braised: veal birds.

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

Chiefly British Slang. a girl or young woman.

Archaic. the young of any fowl.

10.

the bird, Slang.

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

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

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

Relevant Questions

What Are Birds?

Why Is It Called The Bir...

What Is A Bird?

Where Do Birds Live?

verb (used without object)

11.

to catch or shoot birds.

12.

to bird-watch.

00:10

Bird is one of our favorite verbs.

So is peculate. Does it mean:

to spend time idly; loaf.

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

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:
before 900; Middle English byrd, bryd, Old English brid(d) young bird, chick

Related forms

bird·less, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

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

noun

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

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

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

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

John, 1729–75, American Revolutionary patriot.

Matthew, 1504–75, English theologian.

Quanah, Quanah ( def 1 ).

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

a male given name.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To bird

Collins

World English Dictionary

bird (bɜːd)

—n
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 birdRelated: avian, ornithic
2.	informal a person (usually preceded by a qualifying adjective, as in the phrases rare bird, odd bird, clever bird)
3.	slang chiefly (Brit) 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.	a bird in the hand something definite or certain
6.	informal the bird has flown the person in question has fled or escaped
7.	euphemistic, jocular or the birds and the bees sex and sexual reproduction
8.	birds of a feather people with the same characteristics, ideas, interests, etc
9.	informal get the bird
	a. to be fired or dismissed
	b. (esp of a public performer) to be hissed at, booed, or derided
10.	informal give someone the bird to tell someone rudely to depart; scoff at; hiss
11.	kill two birds with one stone to accomplish two things with one action
12.	like a bird without resistance or difficulty
13.	a little bird a (supposedly) unknown informant: a little bird told me it was your birthday
14.	informal for the birds, strictly for the birds deserving of disdain or contempt; not important

Related: avian, ornithic

[Old English bridd, of unknown origin]

'birdlike

—*adj*

Bird (bɜːd)

—n
	nickname of (Charlie) Parker

Parker (ˈpɑːkə)

—n
1.	Sir Alan (William). born 1944, British film director and screenwriter; his films include Midnight Express (1978), Mississippi Burning (1988), The Commitments (1991), and Angela's Ashes (2000); chairman of the British Film Institute (1998--99) and of the Film Council from 1999
2.	Charlie. nickname Bird or Yardbird. 1920--55, US jazz alto saxophonist and composer; the leading exponent of early bop
3.	Dorothy (Rothschild). 1893--1967, US writer, noted esp for the ironical humour of her short stories
4.	Matthew. 1504--75, English prelate. As archbishop of Canterbury (1559--75), he supervised Elizabeth I's religious settlement

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

bird

O.E. bridd, originally "young bird" (the usual O.E. for "bird" being fugol), of uncertain origin with no cognates in any other Germanic language. The suggestion that it is related by umlaut to brood and breed is rejected by OED as "quite inadmissible." Metathesis of -r- and -i- occurred 15c. Figurative

sense of "secret source of information" is from 1540s. 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

"middle finger held up in a rude gesture," slang derived 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

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

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

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.

Slang Dictionary

bird definition

n.
a woman; a girl. : I like the bird you were with last night.
n.
a derisive noise made with the lips; a raspberry. : The third time he fumbled, he was greeted by two thousand mouths making the bird.
n.
an odd person. : Some old bird came up to me and tried to sell me a cookbook.
n.
a rude gesture made with the middle finger. (Usually with the. See comments at finger wave.) : A lot of little kids give people the bird all the time because they see it on television.
n.
an airplane. : I like this bird. She's a dream to fly.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Easton

Bible Dictionary

Bird definition

Birds are divided in the Mosaic law into two classes, (1) the clean (Lev. 1:14-17; 5:7-10; 14:4-7), which were offered in sacrifice; and (2) the unclean (Lev. 11:13-20). When offered in sacrifice, they were not divided as other victims were (Gen. 15:10). They are mentioned also as an article of food (Deut. 14:11). The art of snaring wild birds is referred to (Ps. 124:7; Prov. 1:17; 7:23; Jer. 5:27). Singing birds are mentioned in Ps. 104:12; Eccl. 12:4. Their timidity is alluded to (Hos. 11:11). The reference in Ps. 84:3 to the swallow and the sparrow may be only a comparison equivalent to, "What her house is to the sparrow, and her nest to the swallow, that thine altars are to my soul."

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

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.