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yardbird

Pronunciation: /ˈjɑːd.bəːd/

The English word “yardbird” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A chicken.
  2. A person who is imprisoned.
  3. A soldier who is required to perform menial work on the grounds of a military base.

Etymology

From yard + bird. Attested since 1956 in the sense of ‘convict,’ derived from the idea of prison yards. During World War II, it meant ‘basic trainee’ among the armed forces.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.