bird – English noun declension

English noun forms of bird

Noun: bird
Singularbird
Pluralbirds

Sample Sentences

  • 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:]
  • […] the foxes have holes, and the brydds of the aier have nestes, but [t]he sonne of the man hath not where onto leye his heede: […] [1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew viij:[20], folio x, recto:]
  • That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. [c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:]
  • 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:]
  • "What I mean - I expect that old, red-headed bird at the office sent you round with no other purpose." [1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:]
  • 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:]
  • "But you think he's right?" "Could be. They're rum birds, all right." [1957, Sydney J. Bounds, The Robot Brains, London: Digit Books, page 35:]
  • "Ah, he's a funny bird," said Phaedra, throwing a leg over the sill. [2006, Jeff Fields, Terry Kay, A cry of angels:]
  • 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:]
  • Are you calling me “darlin’”? / Are you calling me “bird”? [2007, Jules De Martino, Katie White, “That's Not My Name”, performed by The Ting Tings:]
  • 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. [2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in 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:]
  • 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:]
  • “Cabin cleaners? They have worked on this bird. Don't you know you've always got to clean up after the cleaners? What they don't teach you in school these days.” [1967, Trudy Baker, Rachel Jones, Donald Bain (uncredited), Coffee, Tea, or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, New York: Bantam Books, page 10:]
  • Any of our birds squawking? [2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Miranda Keyes (Justis Bolding), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest:]
  • 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, →ISBN, page 384:]
  • to give the bird
  • 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.
  • 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:]
  • Never dirt on my knees
  • I'm just serving these fiends
  • Sell birds to the bees
  • I sell birds to the trees [2015 January 12, Lil Wayne, “Sh!t” (track 2), in Sorry 4 the Wait 2:]
  • BUBBLES: One time I was making a model and I glued the wing to a B17 bomber to my bird by accident. [2004 May 9, 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):]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Old English bridd
3. Middle English brid
4. English bird
5. 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.
6. 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. See: Old English Nouns 'bridd'.