Fledge
[fledʒ]
Definition
(verb.) grow feathers; 'The young sparrows are fledging already'.
(verb.) decorate with feathers; 'fledge an arrow'.
(verb.) feed, care for, and rear young birds for flight.
Checker: Max--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.
(v. t. & i.) To furnish with feathers; to supply with the feathers necessary for flight.
(v. t. & i.) To furnish or adorn with any soft covering.
Typed by Laverne
Definition
v.t. to furnish with feathers or wings.—v.i. to acquire feathers for flying.—n. Fledg′ling a little bird just fledged.—adj. Fledg′y (Keats) feathery.
Editor: Whitney
Examples
- Blair joined me at Milliken's Bend a full-fledged general, without having served in a lower grade. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I have the best hopes of you both, with your proud distinctions--a pair of half-fledged eaglets. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- His first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I had won by my combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- The little singing-bird that never was fledged, was long kept in a cage by a guardian of your appointing, well enough known to our old intriguer here. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- As to what I dare, I'm a old bird now, as has dared all manner of traps since first he was fledged, and I'm not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
Checked by Lionel