bird has flown, the

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Idioms and Phrases

The individual sought has gone away, as in Jean hoped to meet her editor at long last, but when she arrived the bird had flown . This idiom has been used for an escaped prisoner, and more generally, as in 1655 by William Gurnall ( The Christian in Complete Armour ): “Man ... knows not his time ... he comes when the bird is flown.” [Mid-1600s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“The bird has flown: the young man is no longer about the place.”

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Phr. the bird has flown the coop. <— p.

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Phr. the bird has flown the coop.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

the Big Three Birds, The

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