adj · name · noun · verb · 29 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
Australian:/ˈbɜːd/
Australian:[ˈbɜ̝ːd]
Australian:/ˈbɘːd/
Australian:[ˈbɘːd]
New-Zealand:/ˈbøːd/
New-Zealand:[ˈbøːd]
/ˈbɜɪ̯d/New York City, Southern US, coil-curl, dated
[ˈbɜɪ̯d]New York City, Southern US, coil-curl, dated
Canadian, General-American, Standard:/ˈbɝd/
Canadian, General-American, Standard:[ˈbɝˑd]
Canadian, General-American, Standard:/ˈbɚ̞d/
Canadian, General-American, Standard:[ˈbɚ̞d]
California:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Irish, Northern-Ireland, Standard:/ˈbø˞ːd/
Irish, Northern-Ireland, Standard:[ˈbø˞ːd]
/ˈbʊːɹd/Dublin, Cork
[ˈbʊ̈ːɹd]Dublin, Cork
Scotland:/ˈbɪɹd/
Scotland:[ˈbɪɹd]
rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)d
homophone: bared
homophone: beared
homophone: Baird (all fair–fur merger)
CMU ARPABET:B ER1 D
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
adj
Meaning 1
Able to be passed with very little work; having the nature of a bird course.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Canada, colloquial
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
name
Meaning 2
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
name
Meaning 3
Nickname of Charlie Parker (1920–1955), jazz saxophonist.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: jazz
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
Ducks and sparrows are birds.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: avian, fowl, feathered friend, feathered folk
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
11
noun
Meaning 11
A satellite.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
12
noun
Meaning 12
Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, with-definite-article
Examples
to give the bird
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
13
noun
Meaning 13
The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: with-definite-article
Examples
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.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: the finger
Antonyms: none provided
14
noun
Meaning 14
A yardbird.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
15
noun
Meaning 15
A kilogram of cocaine.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: chicken, brick
Antonyms: none provided
16
noun
Meaning 16
A penis.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Canada, Philippines, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
17
noun
Meaning 17
Snowbird (retiree who moves to a warmer climate).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
18
noun
Meaning 18
A prison sentence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang, uncountable
Examples
He’s doing bird.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
19
verb
Meaning 19
To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
20
verb
Meaning 20
To catch or shoot birds; to hunt birds.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
21
verb
Meaning 21
To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
22
verb
Meaning 22
To transmit via satellite.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Topics: broadcasting, media, television
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
23
verb
Meaning 23
To bring into prison, to roof.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
24
noun
Meaning 24
warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fowl
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: meat
Narrower terms: poultry, wildfowl
28
noun
Meaning 28
informal terms for a (young) woman
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dame, doll, wench, skirt, chick
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: girl, miss, missy, young lady, young woman, fille
29
verb
Meaning 29
watch and study birds in their natural habitat
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: birdwatch
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: observe
History
Etymology
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.
* 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.
Originally Cockney rhyming slang, shortened from bird-lime for "time".
Across languages
Translations
671 source translations are retained for this English entry.