yardbird
Americannoun
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a convict or prisoner.
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an army recruit.
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a soldier confined to camp and assigned to cleaning the grounds or other menial tasks as punishment for violation of the rules.
noun
Etymology
Origin of yardbird
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.
Smith writes about yardbird intellects, refugees from good taste and urban ease; her characters are shabby-genteel with the gentility knob turned down pretty low.
From New York Times • Aug. 17, 2020
“There is no name for this thing that you’ve become,” he writes: “Convict, prisoner, inmate, lifer, yardbird, all fail.”
From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2019
Dishes of note: Fried yardbird with potatoes, collards and mace gravy; Helga’s meatballs and pasta with tomato ragout and ricotta toast.
From Washington Post • Dec. 8, 2016
The ensuing scramble is pure bedlam, because the last two men of the platoon to answer roll call get the "yardbird" detail.
From Time Magazine Archive
Frank Sinatra, who ably made the switch from crooner to yardbird last year in From Here to Eternity, now proves there is plenty of ham on the famous skinnybones.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
