Word.ws English Dictionary

flipping the bird

flipping the bird is the present participle and gerund of flip the bird.

Meaning of flip the bird

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)

  1. (ambitransitive, colloquial, idiomatic) 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.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see flip, bird.

Questions about flipping the bird

What is flipping the bird the present participle and gerund of?
Flipping the bird is the present participle and gerund of flip the bird.

Words near flipping the bird in the dictionary

  1. flipping one's shit
  2. flipping one's wig
  3. flipping out
  4. flipping over
  5. flipping shit
  6. flipping the bird
  7. flipping the lid
  8. flipping the script
  9. flipping through
  10. flippings
  11. Flippins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flipping the bird (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “flipping the bird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flipping_the_bird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.