Word.ws English Dictionary

on the wing

on the wing prepositional phrase: while flying.

Prepositional phrase

  1. While flying.
    • Next comes a supposition, that the bird sleeps on the wing, and that the great distance from land at which it is seen at close of day is thought to favour the supposition[…].1835 February, Thomas Hutton, “Observations on an Article in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, on the subject of the Albatross”, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, volume 4, number 38...
    • By surviving the rigors of a life on the wing, birds earn another chance to pass on their genes.1999, Scott Weidensaul, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, North Point Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 346
    Synonyms:
    in flight
  2. (figuratively) During operation.
    Synonyms:
    on the fly
  3. (figuratively) In motion.
    Synonyms:
    on the move
  4. (figuratively) Departing.

Synonyms of on the wing

Questions about on the wing

What does on the wing mean?
On the wing means while flying.
What part of speech is on the wing?
On the wing is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the wing in the dictionary

  1. on the water wagon
  2. on the way
  3. on the way out
  4. on the whole
  5. on the wind
  6. on the wing
  7. on the wings of the wind
  8. on the wrong foot
  9. on the wrong side of history
  10. on the wrong side of the blanket
  11. on the wrong track

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the wing (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.

Last updated:

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