flip the bird
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.06 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
1
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make a rude or obscene gesture (at somebody); particularly, to extend the middle finger.
Colloquial
verb
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see flip, bird.
Example Sentences
- "I accidentally bumped into him, and he flipped me the bird."
- "He held his right hand up in front of his face and flipped the bird."
- "The vaunted Attitude era was built, in many ways, on a level of crudity never before seen in wrestling. You had guys flipping the bird, women nearly naked in the ring and guys telling each other to “suck it.”"
- "2008, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Everybody Sucks, American Society of Magazine Editors (compilers), The Best American Magazine Writing 2008, page 9, This summer, she took some time off in Maine, and before she went posted a picture of herself on Gawker in a bathing suit flipping the bird — "At least I didn't put up the ones of myself in a silver-lame bikini. That would have been a little much," she said, laughing."