early bird

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See synonyms for early bird on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person who rises at an early hour.

a person who arrives before others, as for the purpose of gaining some advantage: The early birds got the best seats for the play.

(initial capital letters)Aerospace. the first of the Intelsat series of communications satellites, orbited (1965) by Intelsat.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of early bird

First recorded in 1885–90

Words nearby early bird

earl palatine, earlship, early, early adopter, Early American, early bird, early bird catches the worm, early blight, Early Christian, early closing, Early English

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use early bird in a sentence

It demonstrates how important sexual selection was in shaping the plumage of early birds, O’Connor says.
This 120-million-year-old bird may have been one of the first to shake its tail feathers|Kate Baggaley|September 17, 2021|Popular-Science
Together, these two factors—the speed of your master clock and how responsive it is to environmental signals—determine whether you’re an early bird or night owl, a distinction otherwise known as your chronotype.
Night owls can become early birds. Here’s how.|Isobel Whitcomb|September 13, 2021|Popular-Science
She’s a night owl and he’s an early bird, so Peter has a habit of bringing Betty breakfast in bed before he heads out for a morning walk.
They met in high school. Fifty years later, the pandemic helped them realize they belonged together.|Lisa Bonos|February 1, 2021|Washington Post
Many of the early bird fossils we've discovered so far come from older, early-Cretaceous rocks in China, with the timeframe between then and the end-Cretaceous extinction more of a question mark.
Cretaceous birds were thought to have small bills—except this one|Scott K. Johnson|November 29, 2020|Ars Technica

Within a few million years, however, Archaeopteryx and other early birds evolved.
Dinosaurs may have evolved into birds, but early flights didn’t go so well|Kate Baggaley|October 23, 2020|Popular-Science
“Think of yourself as an early bird when it comes to caffeine consumption,” says Zied.
Can’t Sleep? Your Guide to a Better Night’s Rest|DailyBurn|January 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Being an early bird, I varied matters this morning by calling my officers!
Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie|George Brenton Laurie
The proverb should read, "It is the early bird that catches the bug," and different birds have different ways of going about it.
The Red Cow and Her Friends|Peter McArthur
Although they live on worms, as does Mr. Early Bird of the proverb, they do their feeding by night.
The Adventures of a Grain of Dust|Hallam Hawksworth
Wal, 't 's the early bird thet ketches the worm; an' it's the early worm thet gits picked, too,—recollember that.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864|Various
The automobile tourist, not of the butterfly order, is almost invariably an early bird.
The Automobilist Abroad|M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

British Dictionary definitions for early bird (1 of 2)

early bird

noun

informal a person who rises early or arrives in good time

British Dictionary definitions for early bird (2 of 2)

Early Bird

noun

one of a number of communications satellites, the first of which was launched in 1965 into a stationary orbit and provided telephone channels between Europe and the USSee also Intelsat

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012