wing
Pluralwings
Pluralwings
- 1The body part of a bird, bat, or insect that enables it to fly.
The eagle spread its wings and lifted off the cliff edge.
An injured wing can keep a bird grounded for weeks.
Note
The animal sense the others branch from. Anatomists apply it to quite different structures: a bird's feathered forelimb, a bat's membrane stretched over long finger bones, and an insect's outgrowth of the thorax.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The animal meaning underlies extended meanings of wing. en.wikipedia.org
- A bird's wing is a feathered forelimb. en.wikipedia.org
- A bat's wing includes a membrane supported by elongated finger bones. home.nps.gov
- An insect's wing is an outgrowth of its thoracic exoskeleton. genent.cals.ncsu.edu
- 2The part of an aircraft that produces the lift needed to rise into the air.
Engineers inspected the wing for cracks before clearing the jet for takeoff.
The aircraft's wings flexed slightly during the worst of the turbulence.
Note
Engineers treat the wing as an airfoil. Its shape and its angle to the oncoming air make the air above it flow at lower pressure than the air beneath, and that difference holds the aircraft up against gravity. The term fixed-wing aircraft grows from this sense. Passengers use the word more loosely, for a place in the cabin: a seat over the wing, a view of the wing.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Aircraft wings are analysed as airfoils. www1.grc.nasa.gov
- The pressure distribution depends on the wing's overall shape and its angle to the airflow. Upper-surface curvature alone does not explain lift; even an inclined flat plate can generate it. grc.nasa.gov
- The pressure difference across a wing produces lift. www1.grc.nasa.gov
- Lift supports an aircraft against its weight. www1.grc.nasa.gov
- Fixed-wing aircraft uses wing in its aircraft-component sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A faction within a political movement, typically one whose views lie away from the mainstream center.
The radical wing of the movement broke away to form its own party.
Her speech appealed mainly to the conservative wing of the coalition.
UsageUsually with a direction or label: the left wing, the radical wing of a party.
- 4A section of a building that extends from the main part, such as one wing of a hospital, museum, or prison.
The museum's east wing houses its entire modern art collection.
A new wing was added to accommodate the growing administrative staff.
UsageUsually named by direction or purpose: the east wing, the maternity wing of a hospital.
Note
Buildings have had wings from the start: the Old Norse word English borrowed already meant a building's wing as well as a bird's wing. The idea also stretches to small side parts of objects, so a corkscrew has wings too.
- 5In soccer, hockey, rugby, and similar games, the attacking position near either side of the field, or a player in that position (a winger).
He started the match on the right wing against their fastest defender.
Playing the wing demands real speed and stamina.
UsageYou play on the wing or on the left wing, or simply play wing.
Similarflank
Note
Field sports took over the word for the flanks, the strips of ground near the touchline in games such as soccer, rugby, and field hockey.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Field sports adopted wing for the sides of the playing field and the players positioned there. en.wikisource.org
- 6To do or say something without preparation; to improvise as you go.
Without a script, the host simply winged the entire opening segment.
She hadn't studied at all, so she decided to wing the exam.
UsageMost often in wing it: I lost my notes, so I winged it. A real object also works: wing the exam.
- 7A unit in an air force. In the US Air Force it is a large formation controlling groups of squadrons; in the RAF it is a command of two or more squadrons.
The fighter wing coordinated several subordinate groups during the exercise.
Each wing in the service answers to a numbered air force above it.
Note
The American ladder runs the other way. Squadrons form groups, and two or more groups form a wing, so an American wing is a larger formation than its British namesake, where squadrons make up the wing directly. When a fighter wing appears in an American account, picture several groups of squadrons under one command.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- In the US Air Force, squadrons form groups, and wings contain two or more groups. tjaglcs.army.mil
- RAF wings contain squadrons directly. raf.mod.uk
- The US Air Force reverses the British ordering of groups and wings, making its wing the higher formation. en.wikipedia.org
- An American fighter wing normally brings multiple groups of squadrons under one command. en.wikipedia.org
- 8Movement or passage through the air by flying; flight itself.
The falcon took wing the instant the cage was opened.
Startled by the shot, the whole flock was suddenly on the wing.
UsageLives mainly in set phrases: take wing, on the wing.
Similarflight
Note
In Macbeth, Shakespeare's crow "makes wing to the rooky wood", a turn of phrase that now sounds deliberately old.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. gutenberg.org
- In Macbeth, the crow is described as making wing to the rooky wood; Macbeth speaks the words. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 9One of the areas at the side of a stage that the audience cannot see.
The director watched the whole show from the wings.
Because the stage had almost no wing space, the crew stored the scenery in the loading dock.
UsageMost often plural: in the wings. Waiting in the wings also means ready to take over, like a successor.
Note
Curtains or painted flats keep these spaces out of sight, so performers can stand ready a few steps from the stage. The word is nearly always plural: actors wait in the wings, and in Norman Lindsay's Redheap (1930) the performers "crowded breathlessly in the wings."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Curtains or flats conceal the spaces beside a stage. uiltexas.org
- Performers can wait beside the stage, concealed from the audience, before entering. theatrequip.com.au
- Norman Lindsay wrote Redheap, first published in 1930. openlibrary.org
- The quoted wording describes the performers in Redheap. en.wiktionary.org
- 10A makeup effect in which eyeliner curves outward and ends in a sharp point.
A bold wing can make the eyes look far more dramatic.
She practiced for weeks until her wings matched on both sides.
Similarflick
- 11The badge or insignia worn by a qualified pilot or aircrew member.
The cadet was awarded her wings at the graduation ceremony.
He earned his wings after a long year of flight training.
UsageYou earn, get or are awarded your wings.
Note
In Character (2004), Chris Wallace uses "anyone and everyone with wings" to mean every qualified flier, from press officers to General Curtis LeMay. The badge itself is usually winged in design, and the singular appears mainly before another noun, as in wing insignia.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Chris Wallace wrote Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage, published in 2004. en.wikipedia.org
- Wallace's phrase refers to qualified fliers, explicitly including press officers and General Curtis LeMay. en.wiktionary.org
- The badge has a winged design. aetc.af.mil
- 12A side flap on a menstrual pad that wraps around the edges of the underwear, or on a diaper that fastens around the waist, holding it in place and preventing leakage.
She pressed the adhesive wing down so the pad would not shift.
The diaper's wings wrapped snugly around the baby's waist.
- 13
- 14
- 15To fly, or to travel through or across a place by flying.
Swallows wing across the meadow at dusk.
The eagle winged toward the distant mountain peak.
UsageThe past is winged; casual speech sometimes has wung. Mostly found in descriptive writing about flight.
Similarfly
Note
Descriptive writing uses this verb for flight seen in motion. In The Younger Set (1907), Robert W. Chambers has a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage amid swaying lilac and wisteria.
- 16
- 17To carry or bear something in flight, or to move it along very quickly as if on wings.
Within an hour, the drone had winged the medicine across the lake to the island clinic.
A strong tailwind can wing a small plane home well ahead of schedule.
Similarcarry, bear, speed, whisk
Note
Speed is the point here, and the thing carried is often immaterial. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) wishes he could "wing my will with might" to reach his dead friend at once. That line shows the figurative pull of the verb: wings can lend swiftness to wishes, thoughts and news as readily as to bodies.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Alfred Tennyson wrote In Memoriam. en.wikisource.org
- In Memoriam was first published in 1850, as dated on its first-edition title page. en.wikisource.org
- The poem contains the quoted words and expresses a wish to reach the friend at once. en.wikisource.org
- The friend addressed in the poem is dead. odp.library.tamu.edu
- 18A person's arm.
The pitcher has been resting his wing all week.
The pitcher put ice on his sore wing after the game.
UsageUsed in sports talk especially for a throwing arm, as in a strong wing.
Similararm
Note
Sports talk and casual speech borrow the bird's limb for a person's arm, most often a throwing arm. A pitcher rests his wing between starts, and a fielder can be said to have a strong one. The same image sits behind the verb for a slight injury, where being winged usually means being hit in the arm.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Wing can figuratively denote a person's arm. en.wiktionary.org
- To wing someone means to injure them slightly, especially in the arm. en.wiktionary.org
- 19A platform on either side of a ship's bridge, normally occurring in pairs.
The captain stepped out onto the bridge wing to judge the gap as they docked.
Lookouts posted on each wing signaled the all-clear before departure.
UsageUsually bridge wing, or port wing and starboard wing.
Note
The wings extend to the ship's side or a little beyond, one on each side, so officers can look straight along the hull while maneuvering, mooring or docking. Those views can be hard to get from the middle of the bridge.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Bridge wings provide views along the ship's sides for maneuvering, mooring and docking. ww2.eagle.org
- 20A broad, winglike fin of a fish, such as the side fin of a ray or the enlarged pectoral fin of a flying fish.
The diver watched the manta ray beat each wing like a slow underwater bird.
Fishmongers often sell the skate's wing as a delicacy.
Similarfin
- 21To add a wing (an extra section or part) to a building or structure.
- 22A thin, membrane-like extension, such as the flange running along certain stems, a bract on a dragon fruit, or the flat blade on a samara.
- 23A lateral shoot of a tree or plant; a branch growing up alongside another.
- 24One of the pair of lateral petals in a papilionaceous, or pea-type, flower.
- 25A portable shelter formed by a fabric roof on a frame, open at the sides like a tent without walls.
- 26In pteropods, either of the flat, flaplike extensions of the foot that the animal uses to swim.
- 27Whatever carries something aloft or speeds it along.
- 28In fortification, one of the long side walls of a hornwork or crownwork.
- 29Any blade or sail that fans the air or is driven by the wind, as on a windmill.
- 30A decorative piece at the shoulder of a coat or doublet, such as a little epaulet or a twist of cord.
- 31The part of a ship's hold or lower deck closest to the hull's sides, or either end of a line of warships.
- 32An informal name for the háček, the small v-shaped mark set over letters such as č.
ˇ wing, wedge, hǎcek, inverted circumflex (Karel Čapek)
1985, David Grambs, Literary Companion Dictionary - 33In the enneagram personality system, either of the two neighboring types that color a person's main type.
- 34To give wings to something or fit it with them.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from Middle English "winge," from Old Norse "vængr" (the wing of a flying animal or of a building), possibly going back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to blow," which would make it related to "wind." It has cognates in the Scandinavian languages, such as Swedish and Norwegian "vinge" and Icelandic "vængur," and it replaced the native Old English words for wing.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- English wing comes through Middle English winge from Old Norse vængr. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Norse vængr meant the wing of a flying animal or of a building. en.wiktionary.org
- Wing has Scandinavian cognates including Swedish and Norwegian vinge and Icelandic vængur. en.wiktionary.org
- Wing displaced native words inherited from Old English. en.wiktionary.org