Meaning of yardbird in English:

noun

• 1A new military recruit, especially one assigned to menial tasks.

  More example sentences

  • ‘A stitch in one argent yardbird's stripe, probably saves nine.’
  • ‘Getting the yardbird orchestrating attacks off the street is far more important to the lives of your soldiers than a little wounded pride over a screwed up form.’
  • ‘The yardbirds are in the throes of rumour-induced psychosis after being gripped by speculation that our entire unit is about to be transported to a faraway place.’
  • ‘Sergeants, once chosen to sit at the right hand of God because of singular abilities to make bone-headed privates see things the Army way, shrank from shouting at psychoneurotic yardbirds because doing so might get them in deep trouble.’

  Synonyms

  novice, starter, learner, student, pupil, trainee, apprentice, probationer

• 2A convict.

  ‘Jim also identified negative effects such as younger inmates being taken advantage of by older predatory yardbirds, and some ultimately becoming cheetos-metamorphoses that Jim doesn't approve of.’

  ‘The working convict is a rare exception, sometimes envied because his time is occupied, sometimes derided for his deviance from the yardbird norm.’

  Synonyms

  prisoner, convict, detainee, inmate