bird's-eye view

noun

|Updated on: 5 Aug 2018

Definition of bird's-eye view

1 : a view from a high angle as if seen by a bird in flight

2 : an overall or cursory look at something

Recent Examples of bird's-eye view from the Web

That means no bird's-eye views of the Mediterranean sea, no views of Santiago Calatrava's City of Arts and Sciences, and no views of the Miguelete Cathedral.

— meredith carey, Condé Nast Traveler, "Valencia Doesn't Want You Renting an Airbnb with a View," 11 May 2018
Your seaplane glides above the Palm Jumeirah and The World, providing a bird's-eye view of Dubai's artificial islands.

— jim berleley, Town & Country, "How to Plan a Trip to Dubai," 5 Oct. 2016
Police released video last week from a camera atop the Mandalay Bay resort that provided a bird's-eye view of a concert venue where 22,000 country music fans scattered as gunfire rained down from the windows of a hotel room on the 32nd floor.

— ken ritter, Fox News, "Police release more video from officers at Vegas shooting," 13 June 2018
Travel up the Bosphorus for a bird's-eye view of all the beautiful mansions and to understand the massive size of Istanbul.

— karen fedorko sefer, Town & Country, "How to Plan a Trip to Istanbul," 5 Oct. 2016
In addition to the 518 audio calls, police released video from a camera atop the Mandalay Bay resort that provided a bird's-eye view of the country music festival where 58 people were killed and hundreds were injured on Oct. 1.

— CBS News, "Newly released video shows Las Vegas shooting from above," 7 June 2018
Standing on second base, Jonathan Villar had a bird's-eye view of the battle, and could only shake his head and laugh.

— tom haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Everything going Brewers' way these days as they hit Memorial Day will full head of steam," 28 May 2018
Lebreton and his colleagues decided a bird's-eye view would help.

— amina khan, latimes.com, "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch counts 1.8 trillion pieces of trash, mostly plastic," 22 Mar. 2018
The property, spread across 12 parcels totaling 480 acres, has an adobe-style ranch house with a bird's-eye view that stretches as far as Edwards Air Force Base.

— neal j. leitereg, jack flemming and lauren beale, sacbee, "Taylor Swift is selling this midcentury home in Beverly Hills. It's yours for $2.95 million | The Sacramento Bee," 13 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bird's-eye view.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.