See for the birds in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From birds pecking at horse dung, originally US Army slang, 1940s.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "for the birds (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
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{
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1946 September 2, “Radio: Early Bird”, in Time:",
"text": "Says he: \"This gettin' up at 5 o'clock is something for the birds.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004 February 15, Colin Brown, “Council tax to be replaced by new levy on incomes”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 2009-08-04:",
"text": "One ally of the Deputy Prime Minister said: \"This is blue-sky thinking, but it is strictly for the birds. It is going to cost billions.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, “Saints, Pelicans owner Tom Benson confident as trial closes”, in ESPN:",
"text": "When asked if the trial has taken a lot out of him, Benson said, \"Ahh, no, man. You know, it's not fun, it's not any fun. To have your kids turn against you, that's for the birds.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Worthless; useless; pointless; not deserving serious consideration."
],
"id": "en-for_the_birds-en-adj-01u83SfJ",
"links": [
[
"Worthless",
"worthless"
],
[
"useless",
"useless"
],
[
"pointless",
"pointless"
],
[
"deserving",
"deserve"
],
[
"consideration",
"consideration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, informal) Worthless; useless; pointless; not deserving serious consideration."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "shit for the birds"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"not-comparable"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "für die Katz"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "do bani"
}
]
}
],
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"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/33/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg"
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],
"word": "for the birds"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From birds pecking at horse dung, originally US Army slang, 1940s.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "for the birds (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"related": [
{
"word": "shit for the birds"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English informal terms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncomparable adjectives",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1946 September 2, “Radio: Early Bird”, in Time:",
"text": "Says he: \"This gettin' up at 5 o'clock is something for the birds.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004 February 15, Colin Brown, “Council tax to be replaced by new levy on incomes”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 2009-08-04:",
"text": "One ally of the Deputy Prime Minister said: \"This is blue-sky thinking, but it is strictly for the birds. It is going to cost billions.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, “Saints, Pelicans owner Tom Benson confident as trial closes”, in ESPN:",
"text": "When asked if the trial has taken a lot out of him, Benson said, \"Ahh, no, man. You know, it's not fun, it's not any fun. To have your kids turn against you, that's for the birds.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Worthless; useless; pointless; not deserving serious consideration."
],
"links": [
[
"Worthless",
"worthless"
],
[
"useless",
"useless"
],
[
"pointless",
"pointless"
],
[
"deserving",
"deserve"
],
[
"consideration",
"consideration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, informal) Worthless; useless; pointless; not deserving serious consideration."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-for the birds.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/33/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/En-au-for_the_birds.ogg"
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "für die Katz"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "do bani"
}
],
"word": "for the birds"
}
Download raw JSONL data for for the birds meaning in English (2.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (9e2b7d3 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.