What it means
A casual British word for a woman, often your girlfriend or the woman someone’s seeing. It’s got a proper old-school, blokey pub-chat feel to it, so you’ll hear it in lad banter, footy talk, and tabloid-y chatter. Fine in some familiar circles, but if you aim it at a stranger it can sound a bit sleazy or sexist.
Usage examples
"Is that Dave’s new bird? Met her at the gig last week, proper sound, and she didn’t blink when Gaz started chatting rubbish."
"He's bringing his bird to the match on Saturday."
"Back in the day, my grandad called my nan his bird."
"You coming down the pub later or are you out with your bird again?"
"He kept going on about his new bird all night, proper loved-up, bless him."
Where it comes from
This sense doesn’t come from the feathered animal. It goes back to Middle English burde, which meant a young woman or maiden. Over time that older word got folded into the spelling bird, and the slang sense carried on in British English long after the original form faded out.
Other ways to say it
This expression also appears in
