jailbird

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If it weren’t for the long-ago gift of some 3,000 gorgeous sylvan acres from a cranky jailbird with a civic conscience and a large and very taxable real estate portfolio, we wouldn’t have Griffith Park.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

Tony Sirico, a one-time jailbird who achieved fame as mobster Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in “The Sopranos,” died Friday, his brother the Rev. Robert Sirico said on Facebook.

From Washington Times • Jul. 9, 2022

As he explains in his memoir, Ronnie was “a conman, fantasist, occasional jailbird, and my father. . . . Ronnie’s life was spent walking on the thinnest, slipperiest ice you can imagine.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 14, 2020

One of the most significant parts of the film for her is the love story between Israel and her partner in crime, a ruined jailbird dandy called Jack Hock, played by Richard E Grant.

From The Guardian • Jan. 14, 2019

By far the major portion of the book was devoted to spinsterish discourses on prison life—bad food, hijinks in the exercise yard, tedious little jailbird hobbies.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt