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.
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 The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 24 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
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
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
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
It is familiar to every one as a cage bird.
From Birds of the Indian Hills by Douglas Dewar
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.
