bird

Etymology 1

From Middle English brid, from Old English bridd (“chick, baby bird”), of uncertain origin and relation; but its stock root is possibly onomatopoeic. 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

1. 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.
   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. 2004, Bruce Whittington, Loucas Raptis, Seasons with Birds, page 50
2. (cooking, slang) A chicken or turkey used as food.
   Pitch in and help me stuff the bird if you want Thanksgiving dinner.
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'! 1886, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's every boy's annual
   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. 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 24
   "Ah, he's a funny bird," said Phaedra, throwing a leg over the sill. 2006, Jeff Fields, Terry Kay, A cry of angels
4. (UK, Ireland, slang) A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.
   And by my word! the bonny bird / In danger shall not tarry. 1809, Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter
   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.” 1918 [1915], Thomas Burke, Nights in London, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 75
   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. 13 September 2013, Russell Brand, The Guardian
   “All these fantastic birds, long hair, made up, false eyelashes and things, crowding round this group of scabby, spotty teenagers,” marveled Anderson. 2017, David Weigel, The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, W. W. Norton & Company
5. (UK, Ireland, slang) A girlfriend.
   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! 2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets
6. (slang) An airplane.
   Any of our birds squawking? 25 September 2007, Bungie, Halo 3, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, [[w:Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest|Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest]]
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 1988, Satellite communications. Jan-Oct. 1988
   Will a government- backed APSTAR satellite knock out a planned AsiaSat II bird? 1992, Cable Vision
   In reality, the Air Force was never able to place a bird in orbit that quickly. 2015, John Fuller, Thor's Legions: Weather Support to the U.S. Air Force and Army, 1937-1987, Springer, page 384
8. (obsolete) A chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling.
   The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. 1494–1536, William Tyndale, Bible, Matthew 8:20
9. (UK, with definite article, especially in expressions such as 'give someone the bird') Booing and jeering, especially as done by an audience expressing displeasure at a performer.
10. (with definite article) The vulgar hand gesture in which the middle finger is extended.
    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. 2003, James Patterson, Peter de Jonge, The Beach House, Warner Books, page 305
11. A yardbird.
12. (slang, US) 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 2015-01-12, Lil Wayne (lyrics and music), “Sh!t” (track 2), in Sorry 4 the Wait 2
13. (slang, Canada, Philippines) A penis.
    BUBBLES: One time I was making a model and I glued the wing to a B17 bomber to my bird by accident. 2004-05-09, Mike Clattenburg, Mike Smith (actor), 05:29 from the start, in Trailer Park Boys(Conky), season 4, episode 5 (TV series), spoken by Bubbles (Mike Smith)

verb

1. (intransitive) To observe or identify wild birds in their natural environment.
2. (intransitive) To catch or shoot birds; to hunt birds.
3. (intransitive, figurative) To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
4. (transitive, television) 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. 1995, David D. Pearce, Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media, page 43
   After being sent by fast car to Tel Aviv the cassettes would be 'birded' by satellite to the USA and London. 2012, Yoel Cohen, Media Diplomacy, page 127

adj

1. (Canada, colloquial, of a school or university course) 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. Oct 16 2020, illegalsalt, “Thoughts on these bird courses”, in Reddit, r/UTM
   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. Jun 17 2022, ConradIsMyDaddy, “How to Graduate from the University of Waterloo's Computer Science Program with the Least Amount of Effort”, in Reddit, r/uwaterloo

Etymology 2

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

noun

1. (slang) A prison sentence.
   He’s doing bird.

verb

1. (transitive, slang) 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 2017, “No Hook”, ZK & Digga D (lyrics), CDM (music)