birdcage
Americannoun
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a cage for confining birds.
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something that resembles a birdcage in form.
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Slang. the airspace over an airport, together with the airplanes in it.
noun
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a wire or wicker cage in which captive birds are kept
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any object of a similar shape, construction, or purpose
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an area on a racecourse where horses parade before a race
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informal a second-hand car dealer's yard
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of birdcage
First recorded in 1480–90; bird ( def. ) + cage ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Plenty more dinosaurs will arrive in the film’s two-hour-plus running time: swooping Quetzalcoatlus, splashing Mosasaurus, frilled Dilophosaurus and a bitty Whoknowswhatasaurus that Ali’s Duncan keeps in a bamboo birdcage by his boat dock in Suriname.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2025
Mindy is bracingly funny but also masculine enough to intimidate Jerry, the delicate peacock in this gilded birdcage.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
In a rather tragic detail that feels straight out of a fable, Tiny Pinocchio was kept in a decorative metal birdcage when people visited the house to prevent him from accidentally getting squished.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2023
The last step was layering, like distributing smaller items like old trophies, board games or magazines, and putting a birdcage — a perfect metaphor — in a central location.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
Jemmy swung the birdcage, knocking the candle flying.
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
"Who else but Bunny would collect beautiful Georgian birdcages?" said Guy Schooling, the chairman of Sworders.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2024
The centerpiece is a wooden canoe, carrying various “passengers,” including birdcages, antlers and children’s chairs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
When birds disappear, people open their birdcages and release their confused pets up to the sky.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 6, 2019
The house on Bartram Road would be cleared of its birdcages after Angelou’s death in 2014.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2019
Once they positioned themselves across from each other, Genie glanced at the yard in front of him, the rickety birdcages all cracked and mangled and peeking from just behind the house.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
