Jailbird

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A prisoner or an ex-prisoner
  2. 2
    a criminal who has been jailed repeatedly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
betrayercagelingcaptivechain gangconconvict

Etymology

From jail + bird, circa 1600. Compare gallows bird.

Related phrases

gallows bird

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.