English

Noun

strange bird ‎(plural strange birds)

1. (idiomatic) An unusual person, especially an individual with an idiosyncratic personality or peculiar behavioral characteristics.
   • 1987, Karen Stabiner, "Putting her Heart through the Hoop," New York Times, 14 June (retrieved 29 July 2010):

     Jena Janovy is a strange bird—a college basketball player who is a) female and b) short (5 feet 3 inches) and, perhaps oddest of all, lets neither of those things dampen her rabid enthusiasm for the game.

   • 1992, Kaye Gibbons, "My Mother, Literature, and a Life Split Neatly into Two Halves," in Janet Sternburg (ed.), The Writer on Her Work, vol. 2, ISBN 9780393308679, p. 56:

     I never saw him, but Jackie Langley told me Kerouac was a strange bird, stayed drunk, talked crazy, brooded.

   • 2003, Donald E. Westlake, Put a Lid on It, ISBN 9780446612050, p. 57:

     "You're a strange bird, Meehan," Leroy told him. "When you find out whose house you're in, call me back."

   • 2004, Tony K. Stewart, Fabulous Females and Peerless Pīrs: Tales of mad adventure in old Bengal, Oxford, ISBN 9780195165302, p. 67:

     In this land, too, there dwelled a young man who was a fowler, but a bit of a strange bird he was, for he only captured his birds, preferring not to slaughter them.

Synonyms

• misfit, oddball (noun), odd duck, odd one out, queer fish, odd bird, queer duck
• See also Wikisaurus:outcast

Translations