English Explanatory Dictionary

a little bird told me

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. I received the information from a source which I am not prepared to disclose.

Pronunciation

/ə ˌlɪtl̩ bɜːd ˈtəʊld miː/ /ə ˌlɪt(ə)l bɜɹd ˈtoʊld mi/ [-ˌlɪɾ(ə)l-] En-au-a little bird told me.ogg

Word forms

a little bird told me

Etymology

The etymology is unknown; in English sources, references to birds passing along information to people date back to at least the 16th century (see the 1546 quotation), and in other languages even earlier. For example, Ecclesiastes 10:20 in the Bible, the original Hebrew version of which is dated to 450–180 B.C.E., states according to the King James Version (spelling modernized): “Curse not the king, no not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.”

Synonyms

rumour has it word has it

Related words

hear through the grapevine
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on A Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary