bird

Meanings

Noun

• A member of the class of animals 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.
• A man, fellow.
• A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.
• Girlfriend.
• An airplane.
• A satellite.
• A chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling.
• Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer.
• The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.
• A yardbird.
• A kilogram of cocaine.
• A prison sentence.

Verb

• To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
• To catch or shoot birds.
• To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
• To transmit via satellite.
• To bring into prison, to roof.

Related

Similar words

• fowl, avian
• chap, bloke, guy
• broad, chick, dame, girl, lass
• porridge, stretch, time

Origin

• From Middle English brid, from Old English bird, brid, bridd, of uncertain origin and relation. 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.
• Originally Cockney rhyming slang, shortened from bird-lime for "time".