birdie
/ˈbəːdi
/noun (plural birdies)
1 informal A child’s term for a bird.His cartooning never condescends to its subject, even when he's drawing his pitiful owl terrifying the birdies he wants to play with....
- I have some pet birdies -- a red factor canary and two green singer finches.
- Those little birdies now have hope because of you.
2 Golf A score of one stroke under par at a hole: [as modifier]: he finished with a birdie two on the 18th...
- On the last hole of the 1986 Masters, needing only a par to tie Jack Nicklaus and a birdie to win outright, his iron shot flew far right of the green again.
- After an eagle and six birdies Westwood needed to birdie the 433-yard last to equal the course best of 63.
- Casey went out at 8.31 and this was a day when the early birds caught the birdies.
verb (birdies, birdying, birdied) [with object] Golf
Play (a hole) with a score of one stroke under par: Drummond birdied the 16th and 17th for a 73...
- Tiger Woods birdied the final hole to take an outright lead after a high-scoring first round of the US Open in Long Island.
- I parred the hole and won by two shots over Gil Morgan, who birdied the final hole.
- Woods teed-off, birdied the first hole and began his assault on the leaderboard.
Origin
Late 18th century: diminutive of bird; the golf term from US slang bird, denoting any first-rate thing.