birdie

[bur-dee]

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).

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

Historical Examples of birdies

O, cruel Tom, let birdies be, And blithely sing from bush and tree.
Aunt Kitty's Stories
Various
You forget I had eaten a few strawberries—just to encourage the birdies.
Afterwards
Kathlyn Rhodes
I guess heres where the birdies and butterflies had their Sabbath School.
Maybee's Stepping Stones
Archie Fell
"So my birdies must coo at midnight on the house-tops," he finally remarked.
Mlle. Fouchette
Charles Theodore Murray
Why, sis, do you want our chickens and birdies all carried off?
Little Robins Learning to Fly
Madeline Leslie

British Dictionary definitions for birdies

birdie

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).