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Bird

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bird¹

  • /ˈbɜːd/ Australia
  • [ˈbɜ̝ːd] Australia
  • /ˈbɘːd/ Australia
  • [ˈbɘːd] Australia
  • /ˈbøːd/ New Zealand
  • [ˈbøːd] New Zealand
  • /ˈbɜɪ̯d/
  • [ˈbɜɪ̯d]
  • /ˈbɝd/ Canadian, US, Standard
  • [ˈbɝˑd] Canadian, US, Standard
  • /ˈbɚ̞d/ Canadian, US, Standard
  • [ˈbɚ̞d] Canadian, US, Standard
  • /ˈbø˞ːd/ Irish, Northern Ireland, Standard
  • [ˈbø˞ːd] Irish, Northern Ireland, Standard
  • /ˈbʊːɹd/
  • [ˈbʊ̈ːɹd]
  • /ˈbɪɹd/ Scotland
  • [ˈbɪɹd] Scotland

Sounds like bared, beared, Baird (all fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)d

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Old English bridd

Middle English brid

English bird

From Middle English bird, brid, from Old English bridd (“chick, fledgling, chicken”), of uncertain origin (see Old English bridd for more). Originally from a term used of birds that could not fly (chicks, fledglings, chickens) as opposed to the general Old English term for flying birds, fugol (modern fowl). Gradually replaced fowl as the most common term starting in the 14th century.

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 birds

  1. An animal of the clade (traditionally class) 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.
  2. obsolete Any winged animal.
  3. obsolete A young bird, a nestling. […] 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: […]
  4. slang A man, fellow. He once took in his own mother, and was robbed by a 'pal,' who thought he was a doctor. Oh, he's a rare bird is 'Gentleman Joe'!
  5. Ireland, UK, colloquial A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive. And by my word! the bonny bird / In danger shall not tarry.
  6. Ireland, UK, broadly, colloquial A girlfriend. Mike went out with his bird last night.
  7. slang An aircraft. “Cabin cleaners? They have worked on this bird. Don't you know you've always got to clean up after the cleaners? What they don't teach you in school these days.”
  8. slang A satellite. 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
  9. UK, with definite article Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer. to give the bird
  10. with definite article The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended. to flip the bird
  11. A yardbird.
  12. US, slang A kilogram of cocaine. Never dirt on my knees I'm just serving these fiends Sell birds to the bees I sell birds to the trees
  13. Canada, Philippines, slang A penis. BUBBLES: One time I was making a model and I glued the wing to a B17 bomber to my bird by accident.
  14. informal Snowbird (retiree who moves to a warmer climate).

Similar: avian, bird, birdie, feathered friend, fowl

verb birds · birding · birded

  1. intransitive To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
  2. intransitive To catch or shoot birds; to hunt birds.
  3. figuratively, intransitive To seek for game or plunder; to thieve. MAMMON: These day-owls. SURLY: That are birding in men's purses
  4. transitive To transmit via satellite. 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.

adjective birdier · birdiest

  1. Canada, colloquial Able to be passed with very little work; having the nature of a bird course. SOC100 isn’t bird at all lol. But ANT101 is super easy & the prof (Dr. Sherry Fukuzawa) is amazing.

bird²

  • /ˈbɜːd/ Australia
  • [ˈbɜ̝ːd] Australia
  • /ˈbɘːd/ Australia
  • [ˈbɘːd] Australia
  • /ˈbøːd/ New Zealand
  • [ˈbøːd] New Zealand
  • /ˈbɜɪ̯d/
  • [ˈbɜɪ̯d]
  • /ˈbɝd/ Canadian, US, Standard
  • [ˈbɝˑd] Canadian, US, Standard
  • /ˈbɚ̞d/ Canadian, US, Standard
  • [ˈbɚ̞d] Canadian, US, Standard
  • /ˈbø˞ːd/ Irish, Northern Ireland, Standard
  • [ˈbø˞ːd] Irish, Northern Ireland, Standard
  • /ˈbʊːɹd/
  • [ˈbʊ̈ːɹd]
  • /ˈbɪɹd/ Scotland
  • [ˈbɪɹd] Scotland

Sounds like bared, beared, Baird (all fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)d

Where it comes from

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

noun

  1. slang, uncountable A prison sentence. He’s doing bird.

Similar: avian, bird, birdie, feathered friend, fowl

verb birds · birding · birded

  1. slang, transitive To bring into prison, to roof. Free Criminal, he got birded That's a L but I know he’ll firm it I was vexed when I heard that verdict

Bird³

Where it comes from

* As an English and Scottish surname, from the noun bird.

* As an Irish surname, Anglicized/translated from several names erroneously thought to contain the element éan (“bird”) such as Ó hÉinigh (see Heagney), Ó hÉanna (see Heaney), Ó hÉanacháin (see Heneghan) and Mac an Déaghanaigh (see McEneaney).

* Similarly translated from several other languages containing the word bird, such as German Vogel, French Loiseau, Czech Ptáček see Ptacek), Pták, Polish Ptak.

* This also extends to Native American names, such as Lakota ziŋtkala (“bird”). Compare Eagle, Hawk; Blackbird, Kingbird, Redbird, etc.

proper noun Byrd

  1. A surname.
  2. Nickname of Charlie Parker (1920–1955), jazz saxophonist. When Bird played like that, it was like hearing music for the first time. I'd never heard anybody play like that. Later Sonny Rollins and I would try to do things like that, and me and Trane, those short, hard bursts of musical phrases. But when Bird played like that, he was outrageous…

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