birdie

[ bur-dee ]

/ ˈbɜr di /

noun

a small bird.

Golf. a score of one stroke under par on a hole.

a shuttlecock.

verb (used with object), bird·ied, bird·ie·ing.

Golf. to make a birdie on (a hole).

Nearby words

Origin of birdie

First recorded in 1785–95; bird + -ie

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for birdies

So he came back and found us, listening to the birdies singing, as you would put it.
Dave Dawson at Truk|Robert Sydney Bowen
"So my birdies must coo at midnight on the house-tops," he finally remarked.
Mlle. Fouchette|Charles Theodore Murray
At an incredibly early age this baby could tell you how the birdies fly and what the kitty says.
The Next of Kin|Nellie L. McClung
We looked so for the birdies all, all the time; but only two came, and went away again directly.
A Walk and a Drive.|Thomas Miller

All the particularly cross and disagreeable girls are Birdies and Sunbeams.
Gypsy Breynton|Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

British Dictionary definitions for birdies

birdie

/ (ˈbɜːdɪ) /

noun

golf a score of one stroke under par for a hole

informal a bird, esp a small bird

verb

(tr) golf to play (a hole) in one stroke under par

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for birdies

birdie

"little bird," 1792, from bird (n.1) + -ie. As golf slang for "a hole played one under par," by 1908, perhaps from bird (n.) in American English slang sense of "exceptionally clever or accomplished person or thing" (1839).