ON THE WING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does on the wing mean? 

• ON THE WING (adverb)
  The adverb ON THE WING has 1 sense:

1. flying through the air

  Familiarity information: ON THE WING used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ON THE WING (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Flying through the air

Synonyms:

in flight; on the wing

Context example:

we saw the ducks in flight

 Context examples 

The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town’s life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Its grey front stood out well from the background of a rookery, whose cawing tenants were now on the wing: they flew over the lawn and grounds to alight in a great meadow, from which these were separated by a sunk fence, and where an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, knotty, and broad as oaks, at once explained the etymology of the mansion's designation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)