gallows bird
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
Etymology
From gallows + bird. Compare virtually identical German construction Galgenvogel (literally “gallows-fowl" or "gallows-bird”), and French construction gibier de potence, as well as similar English jailbird.
Noun
gallows bird (plural gallows birds)
- (archaic) A person who deserves, or is likely, to be hanged.
- Synonyms: hangdog, wag-halter; see also Thesaurus:gallows bird
- 1943, Esther Hoskins Forbes, Johnny Tremain:
- Everybody along Long Wharf knows you called him a gallows bird. He's not used to it.
- 2012, Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools:
- The story of the man who bit off his father's nose for rearing him as a gallows bird is as old as Aesop, but no known source before Brant mentions the son's name.
- 2015, Paul Steinberg, Speak You Also: A Holocaust Memoir:
- Before me stood not Philippe but a gallows bird no respectable citizen would want to meet up with on a lonely road.
Related terms
Translations
person who deserves to be hanged
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References
- gallows-bird, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: Fla to Hyps, William Ernest Henley, p. 106
- gallows-bird, Cassell’s dictionary of slang, Jonathon Green, p. 563
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