winged

1. 1
   adjective

   Equipped with wings, the paired limbs or organs that many animals use for flight.

   Winged insects appeared in the fossil record long before the dinosaurs.

   A pair of winged stone lions guarded the palace gate.

   Oppositewingless, unwinged, apterous

   Note

   Adjective and verb share a history here. Middle English winged was the past participle of wingen, a verb made from the noun winge, so "having wings" first meant "furnished with wings." The same spelling still serves the past tense of wing. The everyday opposites are wingless and unwinged. Apterous is the technical equivalent in zoology.

2. 2
   SayWINGD/wɪŋd/

   verb

   Simple past and past participle of wing.

   A stray pellet winged the bird without killing it.

   The migrating cranes winged across the valley at dusk.

   Note

   One spelling covers both the past tense and the past participle across every sense of the verb: a hunter winged the bird, cranes have winged south, a speaker winged it. The improvising sense almost always keeps its "it." Because the spelling matches the adjective meaning "having wings", a winged bird can be one that has wings or one grazed by a shot.

3. 3
   adjectivein compounds

   Having wings of a specified kind, as indicated by an accompanying descriptive term.

   The white-winged dove is common across the southwestern deserts.

   The species is membranously winged, lacking any trace of feathers.

   Oppositewingless, unwinged, apterous

   Note

   Here the word works as the second half of a compound, and the first half describes the wings: weak-winged, white-winged, membranously winged. Joined to an adjective or noun it takes a hyphen, especially before a noun (the white-winged dove). After an adverb in -ly it stays open. Compare the numbered compounds, where the first element counts rather than describes.

4. 4
   adjectivein compounds

   Having the specified number of wings, as indicated by a numeric modifier.

   Dragonflies are four-winged, beating each pair independently.

   The order Diptera is two-winged, the hind pair reduced to balancing organs.

   Oppositewingless, unwinged, apterous

   Note

   Number compounds follow the same hyphen pattern: six-winged, four-winged, two-winged. The numeral counts wings, not pairs, so a four-winged dragonfly has two pairs and the two-winged Diptera have a single working pair. The six-winged Seraphim show the form at home in religious description as readily as in entomology.

5. 5
   adjective

   Moving through the air, or seeming to, with the freedom and lightness of flight.

   Like a swallow that seems to pour itself through the air without effort.

   Hope gave the travelers winged feet on the final climb.

   Her winged imagination ranged far beyond the small village she knew.

   Similarsoaring, flying, airborne

   Oppositeearthbound, leaden

6. 6
   adjective

   Moving with great swiftness and speed.

   Like a falcon in a dive, covering distance faster than the eye can follow.

   The army's winged advance caught the defenders unprepared.

   Rumor traveled on winged feet through the village.

   Similarswift, rapid, fleet, speedy, fast

   Oppositeslow, sluggish, plodding

   Note

   A figurative sense that likens speed to flight. Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587–1588) has "whet thy winged sword," a blade imagined as quick to strike rather than literally feathered. The sense attaches to whatever moves fast, such as feet, an advance or a rumor. It does not take degrees: a thing is winged, not more winged.

7. 7
   WINJD/wɪnd͡ʒd/

   verbslangAustraliaNew ZealandUK

   Simple past and past participle of winge. Chiefly British and Australian; the usual spelling is whinged.

   Note

   Slang from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, where winge is a variant spelling of whinge, to complain. In print its past form collides with the past tense of wing, so "passengers winged about the delay" can briefly read as flying. Writers who want to avoid the stumble use the whinge spelling, whose past is whinged.

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