A fast man, woman, or horse. The word is sometimes eulogistic, usually not so.
1842. Chippendale slept in the watch-house…. Chippendale is certainly a bird.—Phila., Spirit of the Times, Feb. 12.
1852. The same reason—as much, at least, as the assumed one of their vulgarity—kept Mr. Simpson, and other ‘birds’ of his set, out of the exclusive society.—C. A. Bristed, ‘The Upper Ten Thousand,’ p. 128 (N.Y.).
1852. Talking of fast men, that Williams is a bird.—Knick. Mag., xl. 320 (Oct.).
1855. The Perfect Bird has no wings, yet he is considered “fly” upon all sporting matters…. The Perfect Bird carries a brick in his hat and a stone in his boot. In the language of his class, the Perfect Bird generally turns out to be “a bad egg.”—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘Captain Priest,’ p. 319.
1855. ‘Bishop Stevenson,’ of Pittsburgh, is ‘a perfect bird.’—Knick. Mag., xlvi. 90 (July).
1856. A beautiful ‘’von-’orse sleigh’ drawn by a ‘perfect bird’ of a ‘three-mile bay’ mare, to take us a-riding to Rockland-Lake.—Id., xlvii. 429 (April).
1856. Written ‘like a bird!’ Comment on a letter.—Id., xlviii. 430 (Oct.).
1856. Is n’t ‘Mrs. Partington a perfect bird?’—Id., 434.
