cage bird
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of cage bird
First recorded in 1620–30
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.
Be no cage bird who will not fly out into the sunlight when the door is opened freely.
From A Friend of Caesar A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. by William Stearns Davis
Beloved in its home by both Americans and Germans, it is protected and caught only for the cage bird fancy.
From Ohio Arbor Day 1913: Arbor and Bird Day Manual Issued for the Benefit of the Schools of our State by Grace R. Clifton
My father has presented me with a beautiful house here—or so I believe, for I have not yet seen it, being a cage bird, but for nocturnal sorties in the garden.
From Philip Gilbert Hamerton An Autobiography, 1834-1858, and a Memoir by His Wife, 1858-1894 by Philip Gilbert Hamerton
This is one of the species most usually kept in Europe as a cage bird.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 6 "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" by Various
My father has presented me with a beautiful house here - or so I believe, for I have not yet seen it, being a cage bird but for nocturnal sorties in the garden.
From Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson — Volume 1 by Robert Louis Stevenson
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.