| / English Dictionary |
WINGS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A means of flight or ascent
Example:
necessity lends wings to inspiration
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("wings" is a kind of...):
agency; means; way (thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end)
Domain usage:
plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Stylized bird wings worn as an insignia by qualified pilots or air crew members
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("wings" is a kind of...):
insignia (a badge worn to show official position)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (third person singular) of the verb wing
Context examples:
But the poor young ravens lay upon the ground, flapping their wings, and crying: Oh, what helpless chicks we are!
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Investigate various travel packages, for good-fortune Jupiter is in the wings, ready to make your dearest travel dreams come true.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
He fell from the height where he had been up-borne all day on the wings of inspiration.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The disease is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which results in a skin infection, a distinctive white growth around the muzzles and on the wings of bats.
(Hibernation season over, will disease-ridden bats emerge from caves and mines this spring?, NSF)
We made merry about Dora's wanting to be liked, and Dora said I was a goose, and she didn't like me at any rate, and the short evening flew away on gossamer-wings.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The moment we attempted to retreat the circle closed in upon us, until the tips of the wings of those nearest to us nearly touched our faces.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As I did so, I could hear hails coming and going between the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Have 3 pairs of legs, 3 body regions, 1 pair of antennae, and often 1-2 pairs of wings; 26 Orders, 703,500 known species.
(Insect, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)
This is similar to the way bacteria are killed by the surface structure of the wings of the insect cicada.
(Nanopillars help orthopaedic implants resist infection, SciDev.Net)
There were the two wings of the building; there was the garden; there were the skirts of Lowood; there was the hilly horizon.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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