for the birds

1. Worthless: “The last scheme you came up with was really for the birds.”

Idioms and Phrases

Worthless, not to be taken seriously, no good. For example, This conference is for the birds—let's leave now. This term has been said to allude to horse droppings from which birds would extract seeds. This seemingly fanciful theory is borne out by a more vulgar version of this idiom, shit for the birds. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

She hollered for the birds to fly away, but they were lost in a fighting frenzy.

Read more on Literature

The Conservatives said the government's housing pledges "are for the birds".

Read more on BBC

"They formed the basis for many of these habitats, in terms of food for the birds or for smaller mammals, or even the lizards that we find up there," he added.

Read more on BBC

She said the dominate theory behind murmurations is for the birds to avoid predators as they come to roost with "safety in numbers" by joining up in tight knit groups.

Read more on BBC

Friday’s episode is not the first of its kind for the “Birds of a Feather” singer, she told the Hollywood Reporter in 2023, adding that she had been dealing with fans throwing objects onstage for years.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• astonishing 
• implausible 
• impossible 
• improbable 
• inconceivable 
• incredible 
• outlandish 
• preposterous 
• too much www.thesaurus.com
• unimaginable 
• unthinkable