bird's eye view

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Acronyms.

Related to bird's eye view: street view

a bird's eye view

1. A view looking down at an object or area from a high elevation. As much as I'd love to go to the observation deck of the Empire State Building and see New York City from a bird's eye view, I'm afraid that my acrophobia will prevent me from enjoying the experience.

2. A consideration of a problem or situation from a comprehensive perspective. In order to determine why the company was headed towards a fiscal disaster, the CFO had to take a step back and get a bird's eye view of the situation so he could locate the cause of the problem.

bird's eye view

An overview, as in This balcony gives us a bird's eye view of the town, or This course gives you a bird's eye view of history-from Eolithic man to the Gulf War in one semester . This expression can be used literally, for a panoramic view such as a bird might see, as well as figuratively. [c. 1600]

—'s-eye view

a view from the position or standpoint of the person or thing specified.

The most common versions of this phrase are bird's-eye view (see bird) and worm's-eye view (see worm).

1982 Ian Hamilton Robert Lowell There is a kind of double vision: the child's eye view judged and interpreted by the ironical narrator.

References in periodicals archive ?

From the southern ridge of the Marin headlands staring across the glowing red arches of the Golden Gate to the rolling, caterpillar avenues of San Francisco's Richmond district, or from a window seat in a 747 gliding into LAX over the miles and miles of buzzing grid and Pacific coastline that is Los Angeles, we experience the same sort of thrill that nineteenth-century Californians felt about their cities and towns depicted in the popular format of the day, bird's eye views.

In the following decades, bird's eye views provided new Californians with a visual representation of often astonishingly rapid growth and development around them.

This new lithography made it possible to reproduce affordable color images so that bird's eye views usually sold for one to five dollars.

Your town: behold the view

An easy guide to What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who of an industry, the global outlook series provides a bird's eye view of the baked goods industry, the product market segments, and evolving trends shaping the industry's future.

Analyse Competitive Bakery Supplies Market of Europe and North America

Get a bird's eye view of the home furnishing industry, understand the fundamentals underlying the industry's behavior, and get actionable insights into select categories of home improvement products i.

House Ware and Home Fashion Product Sales in the US: Percentage Market Share for 2004 and 2008

An easy guide to What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who of an industry, the global outlook series offers the reader a bird's eye view of the global insurance industry, and an extensive coverage of all recent mergers, and acquisitions that have irreversibly changed the industry's landscape beyond recognition.

Credit Insurance Sector Poised for Substantial Growth According to this New Report

Get a bird's eye view of the Frozen Prepared Foods industry including a rudimentary coverage of major product segments that make up the industry.

Exclusive Coverage on Bakery Products Spans Product Classification, Retail Marketing Practices and Future Business Strategies - 'Frozen Prepared Food - Global Outlook 2006'

Get a bird's eye view of this new, promising, and pulsating, potential laden industry.

Pharmaceutical Industry's Nano-Particle Consumption in the Global Market: Annual Market Estimates/Projection For 2003 Through 2008 In Millions Of US$

Get a bird's eye view of this critical industry that sustains human life, take note of the burning issues consuming the world agriculture industry i.

View Information on Patent Issues and Associated Legislation in the Global Agriculture Industry

Get a bird's eye view of the global Mining industry, and a rudimentary coverage on coal mining, and mining of metals such as Platinum, Bauxite, Feldspar and Nepheline Syenite, Cobalt, Zinc, Graphite and Industrial Diamonds, Boron, and Iron, among others.

Identify Recent Mergers & Acquisitions within the World's Mining Industry

Get a bird's eye view of the structure of the global Telecom Equipment Industry, and identify the major segments that make up the market i.

Global Telecom Equipment Market Poised for Growth According to this New Report

The full service center features floor plans and renderings of the planned buildings, maps of the development, and a bird's eye views of the development sites themselves.