gallows bird

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a person who deserves to be hanged.

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gallows bird British  

noun

1. informal a person considered deserving of hanging

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Etymology

Origin of gallows bird

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

You don't leave Port Royal, my fine gallows bird.

From Captain Blood by Sabatini, Rafael

What could I expect with a gallows bird like you aboard?

From In Clive's Command A Story of the Fight for India by Strang, Herbert

And it really did not require this certificate to convince most of his visitors, that, like many of the trading consuls of the Levant, he was somewhat of a gallows bird.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847 by Various

He who helped the bishop but," he added, with a rather sinister roll of the eye, "was surely none other than that gallows bird, Morten the cook.

From King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 1 or, the Throne, the Church, and the People in the Thirteenth Century. Vol. I. by Ingemann, Bernhard Severin