Meaning of bird of passage | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A migratory bird, especially a passage migrant (“a bird that stops somewhere for a short time during a seasonal migration”).
2. Someone passing through a place and only staying for a short time; an itinerant.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“There is a wonderful conformity between the vegetation of ſome plants, and the arrival of certain birds of paſſage. [Carl] Linnaeus obſerves that the wood anemone blows in Sweden on the arrival of the ſwallow; and the marſh mary-gold, Caltha, when the cuckoo ſings.”

“And now the ladies, with their gay plumage, have flown away like foreign birds of passage, and the jolly old priests of Bacchus, in the parlour, make their libations of claret; […]”

“The muſick and entertainments of Bath are over for this ſeason; and all our gay birds of paſſage have taken their flight to Briſtol-vvell, Tunbridge, Brighthelmſtone, Scarborough, Harrovvgate, &c.”

“—one of those adventurers who deem their fortune never lies at home, and encounter great risks for the sake, not so much of their gains, as for themselves,—human birds of passage, who make life one perpetual journey in search of wealth, but who never die rich.”

CEFR level