WINGLESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wingless mean? 

• WINGLESS (adjective)
  The adjective WINGLESS has 1 sense:

1. lacking wings

  Familiarity information: WINGLESS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WINGLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking wings

Similar:

apteral; apterous ((of insects) without wings)

flightless (incapable of flying)

Antonym:

winged (having wings or as if having wings of a specified kind)

 Context examples 

A general name for small, wingless, parasitic insects, previously of the order Phthiraptera.

(Lice, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

When an environment becomes too crowded with other aphids, females produce offspring with wings, rather than wingless offspring.

(Virus genes help determine if pea aphids get wings, National Science Foundation)

Head lice are parasitic wingless insects.

(Head Lice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

A taxonomic order of wingless insects that are obligate ectoparasites of birds and mammals.

(Lice, NCI Thesaurus)

Patched associates with smoothened protein to transduce hedgehog signal, leading to activation of wingless, decapentaplegic, and patched.

(Drosophila Patched Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

Scientists identified genes that influence whether aphids produce wingless or winged offspring.

(Virus genes help determine if pea aphids get wings, National Science Foundation)

Biologists Jennifer Brisson of the University of Rochester and Benjamin Parker of the University of Tennessee studied pea aphids and uncovered genes that influence whether aphids produce wingless or winged offspring in response to their environment.

(Virus genes help determine if pea aphids get wings, National Science Foundation)

To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)