birdlime
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
to smear with birdlime.
-
to catch or capture, as with birdlime.
to be birdlimed by flattery.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
birdlimesimple
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birdlimessimple
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have birdlimedperfect
-
has birdlimedperfect
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am birdlimingprogressive
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are birdlimingprogressive
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is birdlimingprogressive
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have been birdlimingperfect progressive
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has been birdlimingperfect progressive
Past
-
birdlimedsimple
-
had birdlimedperfect
-
was birdlimingprogressive
-
were birdlimingprogressive
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had been birdlimingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of birdlime
First recorded in 1400–50, birdlime is from the late Middle English word brydelyme. See bird, lime 2
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:
As a reaction against the sunny hues of impressionism, the cubists had often painted with what looked like birdlime and various fine shades of mud.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tables, people, pipes and wine bottles were all reduced to barely decipherable fragments, each seen from a different angle and painted in various shades of birdlime and mud.
From Time Magazine Archive
She went off to harvest the birdlime traps.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
The baboons learned about the birdlime, too, and all she found now were a few forlorn feathers.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
The birdlime had entangled a few queleas and a mouse that had been attracted by their fluttering.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
When the heart is thus birdlimed, then it cleaves to everything it meets with.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
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.
