Word.ws English Dictionary

backwing

backwing verb: to flap the wings in such a way as to push air forward, thereby slowing forward momentum.

backwing: to flap the wings in such a way as to push air forward, thereby slowing forward momentum
Image: Bert de Tilly, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

backwing (third-person singular simple present backwings, present participle backwinging, simple past and past participle backwinged)

  1. To flap the wings in such a way as to push air forward, thereby slowing forward momentum.
    • As he got out, a raven backwinged to a landing in a nearby tree and was scolded by a squirrel who had thought that it was his spruce.1998, Dana Stabenow, Fire and Ice, page 212
    • As they drew closer, the cause of their ragged flight became apparent: the lead gryphon flew irregularly, and the two that followed were forced to rush ahead or backwing alternately to keep up.2011, Erin Hoffman, Sword of Fire and Sea, →ISBN

Noun

backwing (plural backwings)

  1. An act of backwinging.
    • With a disgusted backwing, I let myself down, hard.2009, Brenda Cooper, Wings of Creation, →ISBN, page 114
    • The very ground seemed to shake with the landing impact of all those silver and gold dragons, as well as the backwing flaps of over a thousand large, feathered mounts.2012, J. Michael Fluck, Dragon Alliance: Dark Storm, →ISBN
  2. One of the posterior pair of wings on an insect.
    • The white band on the under side of the backwings is often reduced.1952, Zoologische Beitra Ge Aus Uppsala, page 20
    • The forewing is complete, but the backwing disappeared.1992, Living with insects
  3. The back portion of a bird's wing.
    • I require a rigid skeletal shape and vent bones, nothing soft of spongy, excellent musculature, soft feathering and a good backwing and tail1972, Britain's Year Book of Pigeon Racing, page 12
    • But what I referred to there was, if the backwing of a racer is trimmed, I would not recommend entering that bird in a race in which there was a headwind.1980, The American Racing Pigeon News - Volume 96, page 11
  4. A wing-like projection on the upper back of some a Wayang puppets.
    • The colours of the backwing are the following: the gubahan motif must be gilded, the tendrils of the gubahan motife are preferably made blue or or orange, the leaf work must be red and green.1988, R. L. Mellema, Wayang Puppets: Carving, Colouring and Symbolism, page 43
    • These points represent a remnant of the badong or backwing. In fact, only those characters that wear a backwing in wayang kulit should have these two points (see page 37, Rahwana).1991, Peter Buurman, Wayang golek: the entrancing world of classical West Javanese puppet theatre
  5. The flap of a dust jacket that folds around the back cover of a book.
    • Mr Roger Opie, a Cornish farmer whose military knowledge would make him a formidable adversary if ever the Duchy declared itself independent, was the reader for whom I first imagined myself to be writing; to his encouragement, his wife Sue added the photographic expertise which contrived the...1984, Hugh McManners, Falklands Commando, page 11
  6. A wing at the rear of a building.
    • We are rather stifled by the Administration, however, until the second and third floors of the backwings are completed and we can kick the Applied Mechanics Department and Mineral Industries Department out, when they can move in the new Academic Science Building when that is completed, at which...1951, The Compass of Sigma Gamma Epsilon - Volume 29, page 162
    • Behind the neo-Renaissance facades were high-rental apartments, and behind these, filling up the deeply cut speculative properties, were labyrinths of dark courts and backwings, one behind the other.1989, Richard Joseph Neutra, William Marlin, Nature Near: The Late Essays of Richard Neutra, page 184

Examples of backwing in a sentence

  • The fire demon had rushed him, and landed a strike that sent the angelic demon skidding back with such force that he had to backwing to stop.2016, Selena I. R. Drake, The Lullaby Shriek, →ISBN, page 53:
  • We were just about finished when two large ravens descended with thunderous backwings that sounded like chopper blades.2013, Kevin Hearne, Hunted: The Iron Druid Chronicles, →ISBN:
  • All female specimens have completely black backwings.2007, Lambillionea - Volume 107, page 296:

Forms of backwing

Verb
third-person singular presentbackwings
present participlebackwinging
past participlebackwinged
pastbackwinged
Noun
pluralbackwings

Questions about backwing

What does backwing mean?
Backwing means to flap the wings in such a way as to push air forward, thereby slowing forward momentum.
How do you use backwing in a sentence?
The fire demon had rushed him, and landed a strike that sent the angelic demon skidding back with such force that he had to backwing to stop.
What part of speech is backwing?
Backwing can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of backwing?
The past tense of backwing is backwinged.

Words near backwing in the dictionary

  1. Backwell
  2. backwind
  3. backwinded
  4. backwinding
  5. backwinds
  6. backwing
  7. backwinged
  8. backwinging
  9. backwings
  10. backwood
  11. backwoods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backwing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “backwing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backwing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.