English Explanatory Dictionary

yardbird

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A chicken.
  2. A person who is imprisoned.
  3. A soldier who is required to perform menial work on the grounds of a military base.

Pronunciation

/ˈjɑːd.bəːd/ /ˈjɑɹd.bɝd/ En-au-yardbird.ogg

Word forms

yardbird yardbirds yard bird

Etymology

From yard + bird. Attested since 1956 in the sense of ‘convict,’ derived from the idea of prison yards. During World War II, it meant ‘basic trainee’ among the armed forces.

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 Y Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary