flip the bird
flip the bird verb: to make a rude or obscene gesture (at somebody); particularly, to extend the middle finger.
Verb
flip the bird (third-person singular simple present flips the bird, present participle flipping the bird, simple past and past participle flipped the bird)
- To make a rude or obscene gesture (at somebody); particularly, to extend the middle finger.
- I accidentally bumped into him, and he flipped me the bird.
- He held his right hand up in front of his face and flipped the bird.2005, Vince Flynn, Consent to Kill, page 135
- Synonyms:
- flick off, flip off, give the finger, give the bird
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see flip, bird.
Synonyms of flip the bird
Forms of flip the bird
| third-person singular present | flips the bird |
|---|---|
| present participle | flipping the bird |
| past participle | flipped the bird |
| past | flipped the bird |
Origin of flip the bird
Possibly from the resemblance to the sign for flamingo in American Sign Language. *
Questions about flip the bird
- What does flip the bird mean?
- Flip the bird means to make a rude or obscene gesture (at somebody); particularly, to extend the middle finger.
- What part of speech is flip the bird?
- Flip the bird is a verb.
- What is the past tense of flip the bird?
- The past tense of flip the bird is flipped the bird.
Words near flip the bird in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flip the bird (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-flip the bird.ogg.
Cite this entry: “flip the bird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flip_the_bird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.