wings

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of wing.

   The eagle's wings spanned nearly seven feet from tip to tip.

   Damaged wings kept the moth from lifting off the windowsill.

   Note

   A plain -s plural that serves every sense of the noun alike: a bird's or bat's wings, an aircraft's, the side fins of a ray or flying fish, and the swimming lobes on a pteropod's foot. In slang, a person's wings are simply their arms. The same spelling also belongs to the present-tense verb, as when a falcon wings over a field.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wing.

   The falcon wings effortlessly over the open field.

   He always wings his speeches, and somehow they land perfectly.

   Note

   The present-tense form carries every use of the verb, with or without an object. Without one it means flight: a bird wings over a field. With an object it can mean to wound slightly, to throw, or to improvise. That last sense is best known from wing it, but it also takes a real object, as when someone wings a speech. The spelling is shared with the noun plural.

3. 3
   noun

   A flip hairstyle, in which the hair is shaped to sweep or curl outward at the sides.

   She backcombed and curled her hair into perfect wings before the dance.

   His wings stayed in place all night thanks to plenty of hairspray.

4. 4
   noun

   A type of scuba harness fitted with an attached buoyancy compensation device, worn against a rigid backplate.

   Cave divers often choose wings for their streamlined buoyancy control.

   He clipped the cylinder to his backplate and checked the wings before descending.

   Note

   Here a plural names a single piece of diving kit: one diver wears wings. The full name of the setup keeps the singular, backplate and wing. The inflatable cell sits between the diver's back and the cylinder, so the lift is centered behind the diver rather than wrapped around the torso.

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