Green’s Dictionary of Slang

budgie n.1

[abbr.]

a budgerigar; also attrib.

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[UK]W. Watmough Cult of Budgerigar 207: Although Budgies are so hardy [...] reasonable care should..be exercised to protect them from chills [OED].
[Aus]R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 50: She dodged away from the gas bracket, where two budgies cuddled together.
[Aus]N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 231/1: budgie – a short name for the budgerigar, sold in america as lovebirds.
[UK]N. Dunn Poor Cow 14: The bird cage with a cheeping captive budgie.
[UK]Flame : a Life on the Game 63: A little mirror from a budgie’s cage.
[UK]G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 233: Even smashed family photographs and the budgie cage.
[Ire]P. McCabe Emerald Germs of Ireland 306: I mind her coming down the street one day wearing a hat with a plastic budgie!

In compounds

budgie huggers (n.) (also budgie smugglers) [the supposed resemblance of the outline of the genitals to a small bird (this cognate with bird n.3 (1)] (orig. Aus.)

1. short tight men’s swimming trunks.

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Hills Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA) 28 Jan. 7/1: Turning up after work in my underutilised swimming togs - black Speedos, more commonly known these days as budgie smugglers.
WAtoday.com.au 3 Oct. 🌐 Call ’em cock jocks, sluggos, nylon nasties, budgie smugglers, the banana hammock or the True Test Of Manhood but it breaks my heart to see the way the great Aussie cossie is being scorned by a new generation of beach goers.
[Aus]B. Moore ‘Aus. Sl.’ paper presented to Leicester U. Slang Workshop, Sept. 2012 n.p.: The speedo variety [of trunks] developed an extraordinary number of risqué or simply curious synonyms: blue pointers (with allusion to the shark), budgie huggers [etc.] .
[UK]Guardian 28 Sept. 🌐 [caption] Budgie smuggler? Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) gives a thumbs up in his ‘mankini’ at Cannes.
Twitter 1 Aug. 🌐 I’m sure going to the beach, drinking beers and catching sunstroke in bugie [sic] smugglers isn’t really on the agenda for much of the ‘BAME community’ .

2. male underpants.

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[Scot]T. Black Gutted 89: He stood in the daylight, wearing a pair of budgie-smugglers, bright yellow ones. A ‘Makin’ Bacon’ T-shirt maintained his modesty from the waist up.
Twitter 16 July 🌐 Can’t abide McVey but I saw that misogynist bullshit earlier. I want Gove in budgie smugglers tomorrow by way of apology.
[Aus]N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] [W]earing nothing but worn-out joggers and a pair of budgie smugglers.