ˈred-bird
1. A name given to various small American birds with red plumage, esp. the summer tanager (Piranga rubra), scarlet tanager (P. olivacea), Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula), and cardinal grosbeak (Richmondena cardinalis).
1669 [see Baltimore]. 1670 D. Denton Descr. New York (1845) 5 There is also the red Bird, with divers sorts of singing birds. 1723 Blackmore Alfred vii. 224 When on Indian Plains a Rattle-Snake Perches a Red-Bird in a shady Brake. 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. i. 27 At Hudson's Bay it [the red-breasted thrush] is known by the name of Red bird. 1856 Bryant Murdered Trav. ii, The red-bird warbled, as he wrought His hanging nest o'erhead. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 423 The red-birds, or ‘Cardinal gros-beaks’..are a kind of Virginian nightingale. 1929 W. Faulkner Sartoris iv. iv. 337 They saw redbirds darting like arrows of scarlet flames. 1938 M. K. Rawlings Yearling ix. 81 A red-bird swung in an arc across the sink-hole. 1959 E. B. White Let. Feb. (1976) 459 It's a nice place to be, what with the..red⁓bird saying ‘Portugee, Portugee’. |
2. The drug secobarbital (Seconal); also, a tablet of this drug (coloured red). slang.
1969 R. R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z 219 Seconal... Slang names: red birds, red devils, reds. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 11 July 9-a/1 In order on DAWN's list of drugs most frequently recorded in crisis situations—in which a drug user sought help or died—were heroin, marijuana, aspirin, LSD, secobarbital (marketed as Seconal and known as ‘red devils, Mexican reds and red birds’), [etc.]. |