jailbird
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of jailbird
Explanation
A jailbird is someone who's been in prison or is still there. Your parents might refer to your disgraced car thief cousin a jailbird. Jailbird is a casual and derogatory term for a convicted criminal, especially one who's been in and out of jail several times. Following a prison escape, a local newspaper's headline might read "Jailbird on the Loose!" Jailbird, coined in the 17th century, equates the image of a bird in a cage with a prisoner in jail.
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.
If it weren’t for the long-ago gift of some 3,000 gorgeous sylvan acres from a cranky jailbird with a civic conscience and a large and very taxable real estate portfolio, we wouldn’t have Griffith Park.
From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026
Tony Sirico, a one-time jailbird who achieved fame as mobster Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in “The Sopranos,” died Friday, his brother the Rev. Robert Sirico said on Facebook.
From Washington Times • Jul. 9, 2022
Santa’s delight at meeting jailbird Warwick Davis, whom he naively mistakes for an elf, is brilliantly handled.
From The Guardian • Dec. 18, 2016
Read more: Morrissey hasn’t decided whether he will resign Morrissey urged to resign after conviction A lawmaker by day and a jailbird by night?
From Washington Post • Dec. 18, 2014
By far the major portion of the book was devoted to spinsterish discourses on prison life—bad food, hijinks in the exercise yard, tedious little jailbird hobbies.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
