the bird has flown
the bird has flown
Someone or something has left, fled, escaped, etc.; someone or something is no longer here. I'm afraid you're not going to find him here. The bird has flown.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
bird has flown, the
The individual sought has gone away, as in Jean hoped to meet her editor at long last, but when she arrived the bird had flown. This idiom has been used for an escaped prisoner, and more generally, as in 1655 by William Gurnall ( The Christian in Complete Armour): "Man ... knows not his time ... he comes when the bird is flown." [Mid-1600s]
See also: bird
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
the bird has flown
If you say the bird has flown, you mean that the person you are looking for has escaped or disappeared. He'd been told to follow the woman to work and wait till she came out again. Instead he'd wandered off, come back at her normal leaving time and found the bird had flown.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
the bird has flown
the person you are looking for has escaped or gone away.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
the bird has ˈflown
the person who was being chased or looked for has escaped or gone away: The police raided the house at dawn, but the bird had flown.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017