Bird (bẽrd), n. [OE. brid, bred, bird, young bird, bird, AS. bridd young bird. √92.]

1. Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2).

"That ungentle gull, the cuckoos bird. Shak.

The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).

2. (Zoöl.) A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves.

3. Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird.

4. Fig.: A girl; a maiden.

And by my word! the bonny bird In danger shall not tarry. Campbell.

Arabian bird, the phenix. -- Bird of Jove, the eagle. -- Bird of Juno, the peacock. -- Bird louse (Zoöl.), a wingless insect of the group Mallophaga, of which the genera and species are very numerous and mostly parasitic upon birds. -- Bird mite (Zoöl.), a small mite (genera Dermanyssus, Dermaleichus and allies) parasitic upon birds. The species are numerous. -- Bird of passage, a migratory bird. -- Bird spider (Zoöl.), a very large South American spider (Mygale avicularia). It is said sometimes to capture and kill small birds. -- Bird tick (Zoöl.), a dipterous insect parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies), usually winged.

Bird (?), v. i.

1. To catch or shoot birds.

2. Hence: To seek for game or plunder; to thieve. [R.] B. Jonson.

-- Webster's unabridged 1913