bird

noun

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.”

   “The level below this is called the Phylum; birds belong to the Phylum Chordata, which includes all the vertebrate animals (the sub-phylum Vertebrata) and a few odds and ends.”

2. (archaic)A chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; 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: […]”

   “That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.”

3. (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'!”

   “"What I mean - I expect that old, red-headed bird at the office sent you round with no other purpose."”

   “The door opened and a tall hungry-looking bird with a cane and a big nose came in neatly, shut the door behind him against the pressure of the door closer, marched over to the desk and placed a wrapped parcel on the desk.”

   “"But you think he's right?" "Could be. They're rum birds, all right."”

   “"Ah, he's a funny bird," said Phaedra, throwing a leg over the sill.”

4. (Ireland, UK, colloquial)A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.

   “And by my word! the bonny bird / In danger shall not tarry.”

   “After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into their “second-best” attire, and stroll forth[…]; sometimes to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they “click” with one of the “birds.””

   “The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.”

   ““All these fantastic birds, long hair, made up, false eyelashes and things, crowding round this group of scabby, spotty teenagers,” marveled Anderson.”

5. (Ireland, UK, broadly, colloquial)A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.

   “Mike went out with his bird last night.”

   “But all of a sudden though, just through the smoke / It's your bird laughing and joking with a bloke / Ain't just that either, as she moves closer / In a shape what looks like they're lovers, he's tonguing her!”

6. (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.””

   “Any of our birds squawking?”

7. (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”

   “Will a government- backed APSTAR satellite knock out a planned AsiaSat II bird?”

   “In reality, the Air Force was never able to place a bird in orbit that quickly.”

8. (UK, with-definite-article)Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer.

   “to give the bird”

9. (with-definite-article)The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.

   “to flip the bird”

   “2002, The Advocate, "Flying fickle finger of faith", page 55. For whatever reason — and there are so many to chose from — they flipped the bird in the direction of the tinted windows of the Bushmobile.”

   “Then she raised both hands above her shoulders and flipped him the bird with each one.”

10. A yardbird.
11. (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”

12. (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.”

13. (informal)Snowbird (retiree who moves to a warmer climate).
14. (slang, uncountable)A prison sentence.

    “He’s doing bird.”

    “Well, I’ll do my bird - I can ‘andle it, bird’s never been no trouble for me - and then I’ll get you.”

verb

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.”

   “After being sent by fast car to Tel Aviv the cassettes would be 'birded' by satellite to the USA and London.”

5. (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”

adj

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.”

   “but admittedly, all the hours spent creating excel sheets optimizing my course plan, all the research finding the absolutely best professors, all the smart friends i made, all the alumni i contacted to collect crowdmarks of past exams, all the research i did finding the birdiest courses of all...... all of it was wayyyyyy more fun to me than just sitting down and studying like a normal kid. it was kind of just like playing a video game.”

name

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…”