Meanings
- abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Cowboys picks are more miss than hit. Galloway is a relatively young guy, so what the hey. Bird in the hand, right?
2000 September 6, Maze II, “the Seattle curse?”, in alt.sports.football.pro.dallas-cowboys (Usenet)5 more examples
Elly had ratcheted up the pressure with her threats of leaving early. I had no other bites on the ad. “Bird in the hand” and all that . . . . So much for negotiating.
2003, Robert C. Hereth, Money, Xlibris Corp., →ISBN, page 192‘Look on the bright side,’ he said when he’d finished. ‘At least we got five hundred quid. Bird in the hand, eh?’
2013, Andrew Taylor, “Catch-13”, in Martin Edwards, editor, Deadly Pleasures, Sutton: Severn House, →ISBN, page 219“Well, there is that, sir,” Harcourt replied after a moment to think that over. “Bird in the hand, and all that?”
2014, Dewey Lambdin, The King's Marauder, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 150You're afraid of losing the customer. If I offer them this other product, they might stop buying that product for which they've come to me for years. Bird in the hand, right?
2018, Alex Goldfayn, Selling Boldly, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBNA little bit of cash now means more to the boys than the promise of a fortune who knows when. Bird in the hand, and all […]
2019, Tim Buckley, Cara is Missing, Kibworth Beauchamp: Matador, →ISBN, pages 276–277
Cite this entry
bird in the hand. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bird%20in%20the%20hand
“bird in the hand.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bird%20in%20the%20hand. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bird in the hand,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bird%20in%20the%20hand.
Source: bird in the hand on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.