pigeon
Pluralpigeons
Pluralpigeons
- 1
- 2The flesh of the pigeon, prepared and eaten as food.
The restaurant serves roast pigeon with a dark cherry sauce and crisp potatoes.
The recipe calls for pigeon braised in red wine and herbs.
UsageNo a for the meat: roast pigeon, like chicken; a pigeon usually means a whole bird.
- 3A person who is the target or victim of a confidence trick or swindle.
The swindlers spotted their pigeon the moment he walked into the casino.
Every grifter at the fair was looking for a pigeon with deep pockets.
Similarsucker, dupe, mark, chump, gull
Note
Swindlers' talk from Canada and the US, where a pigeon is the person a con is aimed at.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Pigeon denotes a confidence trick's target or victim, with Canadian and US usage recorded. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4A matter that is one's own concern or responsibility.
UsageMostly in set phrases such as it's their pigeon or not my pigeon.
Note
A different word wearing the bird's spelling. It comes from pidgin, the Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of business used in Far Eastern trade, so "their pigeon" once meant "their business."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Pigeon meaning business or responsibility has an origin distinct from the bird word. en.wikipedia.org
- The origin is Chinese Pidgin English pidgin, representing English business in Far Eastern trade. en.wiktionary.org
- 5To cheat or swindle a person by means of a confidence game.
- 6A person who favors peace, appeasement, or staying out of conflict; a dove.
- 7A person regarded as weak, feeble, or of no use.
- 8A person hired to carry film footage out of a region where travel or transport is difficult.
Kalb rushed to the airport and found a "pigeon" to take out the film: an American woman headed for London.
1989, Whitman Bassow, The Moscow Correspondents
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
English inherited "pigeon" from Middle English "pygeoun", borrowed from Old French "pyjon" and going back to Late Latin "pīpiōnem" ("chirping bird"), from Latin "pīpiāre" ("to chirp"), a word of imitative origin. It partly displaced the native English word "dove".
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- English pigeon descends from Middle English pygeoun. en.wiktionary.org
- The Middle English word was borrowed from French, with Old French pyjon in its ancestry. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French pyjon descends from Latin pīpiōnem. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin noun means chirping bird, is attested in Late Latin, and derives from the verb meaning to chirp. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin verb is imitative in origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Pigeon partly displaced the native English word dove. en.wiktionary.org
This sense goes back to "pidgin" English, whose name reflects how speakers of Chinese Pidgin English said "business" when trading in the Far East.