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birds of a feather

 - 8 dictionary results
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bird

  [burd]
Use birds of a feather in a Sentence
–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.
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

Related forms:
birdless, adjective
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feath⋅er

  [feth-er]
–noun
1. one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
2. kind; character; nature: two boys of the same feather.
3. something like a feather, as a tuft or fringe of hair.
4. something very light, small, or trivial: Your worry is a mere feather.
5. Archery. one of the vanes at the tail of an arrow or dart.
6. Carpentry. a spline for joining the grooved edges of two boards.
7. Masonry. See under plug and feathers.
8. a featherlike flaw, esp. in a precious stone.
9. Machinery. feather key.
10. Archaic. attire.
11. Obsolete. plumage.
–verb (used with object)
12. to provide with feathers, as an arrow.
13. to clothe or cover with or as with feathers.
14. Rowing. to turn (an oar) after a stroke so that the blade becomes nearly horizontal, and hold it thus as it is moved back into position for the next stroke.
15. Aeronautics.
a. to change the blade angle of (a propeller) so that the chords of the blades are approximately parallel to the line of flight.
b. to turn off (an engine) while in flight.
–verb (used without object)
16. to grow feathers.
17. to be or become feathery in appearance.
18. to move like feathers.
19. Rowing. to feather an oar.
—Verb phrase
20. feather into, South Midland U.S. to attack (a person, task, or problem) vigorously.
—Idioms
21. a feather in one's cap, a praiseworthy accomplishment; distinction; honor: Being chosen class president is a feather in her cap.
22. birds of a feather. bird (def. 15).
23. feather one's nest, to take advantage of the opportunities to enrich oneself: The mayor had used his term of office to feather his nest.
24. in fine or high feather, in good form, humor, or health: feeling in fine feather.
25. ruffle someone's feathers, to anger, upset, or annoy (another person).
26. smooth one's ruffled or rumpled feathers, to regain one's composure; become calm: After the argument, we each retired to our own rooms to smooth our ruffled feathers.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME, OE fether; c. D veder, G Feder, ON fjǫthr; akin to Gk pterón, Skt pátram wing, feather

Related forms:
feath⋅er⋅less, adjective
feath⋅er⋅less⋅ness, noun
feath⋅er⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To birds of a feather
Slang Dictionary
bird

  1. n.
    a woman; a girl. : I like the bird you were with last night.
  2. 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.
  3. n.
    an odd person. : Some old bird came up to me and tried to sell me a cookbook.
  4. 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.
  5. 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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birds of a feather

and BOF
  1. phr. & comp. abb.
    people who share an interest or proclivity. : Those guys are really birds of a feather. They are always together. , We're BOF and love to hike and enjoy nature.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

feather 
O.E. feðer "feather," in pl., "wings," from Gmc. *fethro (cf. O.N. fjöðr, M.Du. vedere, Ger. Feder), from PIE *petra-, zero degree *ptera- "wing, feather," from base *pet- "to rush, to fly" (see petition). To feather one's nest "enrich oneself" is from 1583. Feather-headed "silly" is from 1647. Feather-weight, the lightest allowable, is first recorded 1812, originally in horse-racing; boxing use dates from 1889.

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]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: feath·er
Pronunciation: 'feth-&r
Function: noun
: one of the light horny epidermal outgrowths that form the external coveringof the body of birds and that consist of a shaft bearing on each side a series of barbs which bear barbules which in turn bear barbicels commonly ending in the hooked processes and interlocking withthe barbules of an adjacent barb to link the barbs into a continuous vane —feath·ered /-&rd/ adjective
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Computing Dictionary

Birds Of a Feather
(BOF) (From the saying "Birds of a feather flock together") An informal discussion group, scheduled on a conference program or formed ad hoc, to consider a specific issue or subject. It is not clear where or when this term originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences for Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was used earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been common at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s.
(1994-10-11)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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