Bird
[bɜːd] or [bɝd]
Definition
(noun.) warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings.
(noun.) the flesh of a bird or fowl (wild or domestic) used as food.
(verb.) watch and study birds in their natural habitat.
Edited by Jeremy--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2).
(n.) A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves.
(n.) Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird.
(n.) Fig.: A girl; a maiden.
(v. i.) To catch or shoot birds.
(v. i.) Hence: To seek for game or plunder; to thieve.
Typed by Judy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Fowl, fowl of the air.
Typed by Audrey
Unserious Contents or Definition
It is a favorable dream to see birds of beautiful plumage. A wealthy and happy partner is near if a woman has dreams of this nature. Moulting and songless birds, denotes merciless and inhuman treatment of the outcast and fallen by people of wealth. To see a wounded bird, is fateful of deep sorrow caused by erring offspring. To see flying birds, is a sign of prosperity to the dreamer. All disagreeable environments will vanish before the wave of prospective good. To catch birds, is not at all bad. To hear them speak, is owning one's inability to perform tasks that demand great clearness of perception. To kill than with a gun, is disaster from dearth of harvest.
To see a yellow bird flitting about in your dreams, foretells that some great event will cast a sickening fear of the future around you. To see it sick or dead, foretells that you will suffer for another's wild folly.
Checker: Phelps
Examples
- She came speeding over the sea like a great bird. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- So, I presented Joe to Herbert, who held out his hand; but Joe backed from it, and held on by the bird's-nest. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Tupman,' said the old gentleman, 'you singled out that particular bird? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- But I will drop it in that gorge like a broken bird cage. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- In 1801 he built his first steam carriage, adapted to carry seven or eight passengers, which was said to have gone off like a bird, but broke down, and was taken to the home of Capt. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Although the beak is thus very inferior as a sifter to that of a shoveller, yet this bird, as every one knows, constantly uses it for this purpose. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- These he showed us from the drawing-room window, while his bird was hopping about his head, and he laughed, Ha ha ha ha! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- I wouldn't take ten thousand guineas for that bird. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- And a bird-cage, sir,' says Sam. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- A long sigh floated past them on the still waters, like the melancholy cry of a bird, and died away sadly in the distance. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- A bird flying to the hedge,' was all he thought about it; and came back, and resumed his walk. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I am glad to congratulate you on your achievement, said he; you came down as gracefully and as much like a bird as you went up. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- She loved this hoard as a bird loves its eggs. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I am very glad to hear it, said Dorothea, laughing out her words in a bird-like modulation, and looking at Will with playful gratitude in her eyes. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I shall begin to admit what you said of yourself when you first came here--that you are a bear, and want teaching by the birds. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Calls a house a rookery when there's not a rook near it, and takes the birds on trust, because he sees the nests! Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Others, again, searched the surrounding trees for fruit, nuts, small birds, and eggs. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Some of these he has left on the Continent, but he has brought with him to this house a cockatoo, two canary-birds, and a whole family of white mice. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- In this family several hen birds unite and lay first a few eggs in one nest and then in another; and these are hatched by the males. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- And if care was not taken in the breeding, your dogs and birds would greatly deteriorate? Plato. The Republic.
- The uprising of the star of day was hailed by triumphant strains, while the birds, heard by snatches, filled up the intervals of the music. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- I have added to my collection of birds. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- And the birds I hear! Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- All this time I stood watching the turkeys to see where they flew--with my gun on my shoulder, and never once thought of levelling it at the birds. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The very birds of the air, as it seems to me, give the Shivering Sand a wide berth. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Mr. Tupman had saved the lives of innumerable unoffending birds by receiving a portion of the charge in his left arm. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- What, you're looking at my lodger's birds, Mr. Jarndyce? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- All similes and allegories concerning her began and ended with birds. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I asked, whether he or the crew had seen any prodigious birds in the air, about the time he first discovered me. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
Edited by Henry