Word.ws English Dictionary

having a bird

having a bird is the present participle and gerund of have a bird.

Meaning of have a bird

Verb

have a bird (third-person singular simple present has a bird, present participle having a bird, simple past and past participle had a bird)

  1. (slang) To freak out; to be shocked or upset.
    • Didn't do anything great except saw "The Beatles" on The Ed Sullivan Show and Kathy practically had a bird.1964, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see have, a, bird.

Questions about having a bird

What is having a bird the present participle and gerund of?
Having a bird is the present participle and gerund of have a bird.

Words near having a bird in the dictionary

  1. havin'
  2. having
  3. having a bad time of it
  4. having a ball
  5. having a bath
  6. having a bird
  7. having a bite
  8. having a bone in one's leg
  9. having a bone to pick
  10. having a brick in one's hat
  11. having a bun in the oven

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having a bird (page history and authors); have a 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: “having a bird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_a_bird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.