Phrase guide

for the birds

adj · 1 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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /fə ðə ˈbɜːdz/
  • General-American: /fəɹ ðə ˈbɜɹdz/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)dz

1

adj

Meaning 1

Not deserving serious consideration; unimportant; useless, worthless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, informal, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pointless, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, like a fart in a windstorm, meager, mean, minor, miserable, negligible, nothingburger, nondescript, null, paltry, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddling, piddly, pissant, pissass, piteous, pitiful, silly, simple, slight, ticky-tacky, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, unweighty, vain, worthless, wretched, bastardly, blown, cacky, chaffy, cocking, crapalicious, cruddy, cullionly, draffish, draffy, dreckish, drecky, duffing, fucking, garbagey, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, goodless, ineffectual, invaluable, jabberwocky, junky, mouldy, mucid, naughty, no-account, no good / no-good, nonvaluable, not worth a damn, not worth a dime, not worth a plug nickel, not worth a brass farthing, not worth a cent, not worth a cress, not worth a curse, not worth a Continental, not worth a farthing, not worth hell room, not worth a nickel, not worth a penny, not worth salt, not worth a whistle, nought, of no value, punk, putid, rubbishly, rubbishy, sixpenny, scabbed, screwy, scummy, shand, shit, shitey, shitstained, shitty-ass, sorry-ass, strawlike, suckworthy, tenth-rate, toshy, trinkety, triobolar, tripy, unappreciated, unvaluable, valueless, worth nothing, wutless

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Originally United States Army slang, said to be from birds pecking at cattle and horse dung.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: for no reason — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Finnish: to be wasted — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Finnish: turha — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Finnish: suotta — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Finnish: hukkaan — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • German: für den Hugo — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • German: für die Katz — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Polish: do bani — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Polish: do chrzanu — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Polish: do kitu — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Polish: do luftu — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless
  • Polish: do niczego — not deserving serious consideration — see also unimportant, useless, worthless