Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Endearing term for a small bird, often used when talking with young children.
- noun idiomatic, Northern England An insignificant sound or thing.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I don't understand, all I see for cake no.4 is a little dicky-bird...
Easter Indiscretions 2010
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Funny one hardly hears a dicky-bird from the Orient on the matter.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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I shall say that the writer may have mastered the dicky-bird language on the flints that they call
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I am a man of strict business habits, and some powers of observation; my little squirrel's assurances that there is nothing in the box, combined with her obvious anxiety that I should not go and see for myself, satisfy me that it is indeed empty, in spite of the fact that I have not invariably found her a strictly truthful little dicky-bird.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, April 11, 1891 Various
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"It isn't 'measly' and it isn't a 'dicky-bird!'" she answered indignantly.
Half A Chance Frederic S. Isham
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"Do ye mean," he observed, "you come back here for that measly dicky-bird?"
Half A Chance Frederic S. Isham
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"Here's an old sourdough like me hittin 'the trail with a broom in one fist and -- by he -- hen, a dicky-bird in the other!"
Where the Sun Swings North Barrett Willoughby
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But all I can do is warble like a darn 'dicky-bird.
The Trail of the Hawk A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life Sinclair Lewis 1918
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The scientific name of this dicky-bird is _Porcus Rockefelleri_.
INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition) 1911
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At the church sociables he used to hop around among them, chipping and chirping like a dicky-bird picking up seed; and he was a great hand to play the piano, and sing saddish, sweetish songs to them.
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