wings


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wing

 (wĭng)
n.
1.
a. One of a pair of movable appendages used for flying, as the feather-covered modified forelimb of a bird or the skin-covered modified forelimb of a bat or pterosaur.
b. One of the one or two pairs of membranous structures used for flying that extend from the thorax of an insect.
c. A structure or part used by an animal for gliding through the air, as the folds of skin of a flying squirrel or the enlarged pectoral fins of a flying fish.
d. wings An outspread pair of stylized bird's wings worn as insignia by qualified pilots or air crew members.
2. An airfoil whose principal function is providing lift, especially either of two such airfoils symmetrically positioned on each side of the fuselage of an aircraft.
3. Botany
a. A thin or membranous extension, as of the fruit of a maple or ash, the seed of a pine, or the branches of a winged elm.
b. One of the lateral petals of the flower of certain plants in the pea family, such as the sweet pea.
4. Something that resembles a wing in appearance or function, especially:
a. The vane of a weathervane.
b. The sail of a ship.
c. A folding section, as of a double door or of a movable partition.
d. Either of the two side projections on the back of a wing chair.
e. A flat of theatrical scenery projecting onto the stage from the side.
f. Chiefly British The fender of a motor vehicle.
5.
a. A structure that forms an extended part of or is attached to a main structure: the east wing of the school; the children's wing of the hospital.
b. Either of the unseen backstage areas on the sides of the stage of a proscenium theater.
6.
a. The act or manner of flying.
b. A means of flight or rapid movement: Fear lent wings to his feet.
7.
a. A group affiliated with or subordinate to an older or larger organization.
b. Either of two groups with opposing views within a larger group; a faction.
c. A section of a party, legislature, or community holding distinct, especially dissenting, political views: the conservative wing.
8.
a. Either the left or right flank of an army or a naval fleet.
b. An air force unit larger than a group but smaller than a numbered air force or, formerly, than a division.
9. Sports
a. Either of the forward positions near the sides of the playing area, especially in hockey.
b. A player who plays this position.
v. winged, wing·ing, wings
v.intr.
To move swiftly through the air or on wings: birds winging south for the winter.
v.tr.
1.
a. To pass over or through with wings: birds winging the air.
b. To make (one's way) through the air or on wings: birds winging their way north.
c. To carry or transport by flying: The plane winged the troops back home.
2.
a. To furnish with wings: a mythological horse that is winged.
b. To feather (an arrow).
3. To throw or propel (a ball, for example) through the air.
4. To strike or wound in a wing or an appendage: winged me with a snowball.
5. To furnish with side or subordinate extensions, as a building or an altarpiece.
6. To say or do (something) without preparation or forethought; improvise: decided to wing his remarks to reporters.
Idioms:
give wing to
1. To provide the impetus for or enable (something): a mentor who gave wing to my career.
2. To free from constraints or allow to operate freely: a poet who gave wing to her imagination.
in the wings
1. In the stage wings, unseen by the audience.
2. Close by in the background; available at short notice: a presidential candidate waiting in the wings.
on the wing
In flight; flying.
take wing
1. To fly off; soar away.
2. To make progress or have success, especially in a sudden or dramatic manner: when her career took wing.
under (one's) wing
Under one's protection; in one's care.
wing it Informal
To improvise: I hadn't prepared for the interview, so I had to wing it.

[Middle English wenge, winge, of Scandinavian origin; see wē- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wings

Areas beyond the acting area to the side of the stage.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.wings - a means of flight or ascent; "necessity lends wings to inspiration"
means, way, agency - how a result is obtained or an end is achieved; "a means of control"; "an example is the best agency of instruction"; "the true way to success"
plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one
2.wings - stylized bird wings worn as an insignia by qualified pilots or air crew members
insignia - a badge worn to show official position
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
جَناحا المَسْرَح
kulissen
kulisszák
sviîsvængur
kulisy

wing

(wiŋ) noun
1. one of the arm-like limbs of a bird or bat, which it usually uses in flying, or one of the similar limbs of an insect. The eagle spread his wings and flew away; The bird cannot fly as it has an injured wing; These butterflies have red and brown wings.
2. a similar structure jutting out from the side of an aeroplane. the wings of a jet.
3. a section built out to the side of a (usually large) house. the west wing of the hospital.
4. any of the corner sections of a motor vehicle. The rear left wing of the car was damaged.
5. a section of a political party or of politics in general. the Left/Right wing.
6. one side of a football etc field. He made a great run down the left wing.
7. in rugby and hockey, a player who plays mainly down one side of the field.
8. in the air force, a group of three squadrons of aircraft.
winged adjective
having wings. a winged creature.
-winged
a four-winged insect.
ˈwinger noun
in football etc, a player who plays mainly down one side of the field.
ˈwingless adjective
wings noun plural
the sides of a theatre stage. She waited in the wings.
wing commander
in the air force, the rank above squadron leader.
ˈwingspan noun
the distance from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other when outstretched (of birds, aeroplanes etc).
on the wing
flying, especially away. The wild geese are on the wing.
take under one's wing
to take (someone) under one's protection.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
"Now, Eureka, you'll have to show me the way to those wings."
If a man states that a wing is necessarily relative to a bird, the connexion between these two will not be reciprocal, for it will not be possible to say that a bird is a bird by reason of its wings.
When danger threatened, he was prepared; but he was not forever courting disaster, and so it was that when about one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth, he heard the dismal flapping of giant wings overhead, he was neither surprised nor frightened but idly prepared for an attack he had known might reasonably be expected.
The fore-limbs, for instance, which served as legs in the parent-species, may become, by a long course of modification, adapted in one descendant to act as hands, in another as paddles, in another as wings; and on the above two principles--namely of each successive modification supervening at a rather late age, and being inherited at a corresponding late age--the fore-limbs in the embryos of the several descendants of the parent-species will still resemble each other closely, for they will not have been modified.
I had been having considerable trouble with my wings. The day after I helped the choir I made a dash or two with them, but was not lucky.
"'Four membranous wings covered with little colored scales of metallic appearance; mouth forming a rolled proboscis, produced by an elongation of the jaws, upon the sides of which are found the rudiments of mandibles and downy palpi; the inferior wings retained to the superior by a stiff hair; antennae in the form of an elongated club, prismatic; abdomen pointed, The Death's -- headed Sphinx has occasioned much terror among the vulgar, at times, by the melancholy kind of cry which it utters, and the insignia of death which it wears upon its corslet.'"
There was a rushing of many wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the dark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his shoulders.
Long Eva watched their shining wings, and listened to the music of their voices as they flew singing home, and when at length the last little form had vanished among the clouds, she saw that all around her where the Elves had been, the fairest flowers had sprung up, and the lonely brook-side was a blooming garden.
AN EAGLE was once captured by a man, who immediately clipped his wings and put him into his poultry-yard with the other birds, at which treatment the Eagle was weighed down with grief.
It is just wings, and wings, and wings, till you are weary: turkeys, and geese, and bats, and butterflies, and angels, and grasshoppers, and flying-fish, and - well, there is really no end to the tribe; it gives me the heaves just to think of it.
These great palm-leaves, for which I have endangered my life seven times, must serve us as wings."
She caught herself with a quick beat of wings, fluttered about undecidedly for a space, then rose in the air.