Home UK English yardbird

Meaning of yardbird in English:

yardbird

Pronunciation /ˈjɑːdbəːd/

Translate yardbird into Spanish

noun

informal US

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

    • ‘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.’
    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.’
    prisoner, convict, detainee, inmate

Origin

1940s perhaps suggested by jailbird.