birthday, n. 1. The annual return to a river you cannot step in twice. 2. A number the body knows before the mind does: the knees, the lower back, the sudden need to sit after dishes. 3. (colloq.) The one day per year when golden fish leap and you are expected to count them. 4. Three small silhouettes at the sink, their hands in water you heated, singing a song with your name in it, the wrong melody, the right words. 5. A candle carried downstream. See also: current, see also: still here.