Yardbird
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A chicken. US, slang
- 2 a person serving a sentence in a jail or prison wordnet
- 3 A person who is imprisoned. US, slang
"The working convict is a rare exception, sometimes envied because his time is occupied, sometimes derided for his deviance from the yardbird norm."
- 4 a military recruit who is assigned menial tasks wordnet
- 5 A soldier who is required to perform menial work on the grounds of a military base. US, slang
"As the Marines expanded to war strength, Lou Diamond was the ideal liaison between crusty old-timers and impressionable recruits. He taught quick action by threats of yardbird detail."
Example
More examples"The working convict is a rare exception, sometimes envied because his time is occupied, sometimes derided for his deviance from the yardbird norm."
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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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.