Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a Ford Thunderbird.

1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 40: The girls are driving the T-bird. Let’s us go in my Merc.
1967		in Otis Redding & Carla Thomas ‘Tramp’ 🎵 I got six Cadillacs [...] three T-Birds, Mustang, oooooohhh.
1972		J. Maryland ‘Shoe-shine on 63rd’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 210: They seemed to take pride in the fact that they had seen Red graduate from [...] a used T-Bird to a new Eldorado Cadillac.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 83: A Marine in a beatup T-bird pulled over to the bus stop.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 25: I’m looking for two male Caucasians driving a powder blue ’62 T-Bird.

2. Thunderbird wine, a cheap wine drunk primarily by alcoholics.

1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 20: Walter was probably still passed out from last night’s bout with T-Bird and TV.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 159: Dozens of men would live their lives at the lip of a bottle of 20/20 or T-bird or Mickey’s.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 134: You can’t get a good bottle of T-bird anywhere uptown.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 233: A bottle of T-bird topped with a cotton-wick fuse.