Word.ws English Dictionary

upon the wing

upon the wing is the alternative form of on the wing.

Meaning of on the wing

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...
    Synonyms:
    in flight
  2. (figuratively) During operation.
    Synonyms:
    on the fly
  3. (figuratively) In motion.
    Synonyms:
    on the move
  4. (figuratively) Departing.

Questions about upon the wing

What is upon the wing the alternative form of?
Upon the wing is the alternative form of on the wing.

Words near upon the wing in the dictionary

  1. upon the square
  2. upon the strength of
  3. upon the tapis
  4. upon the whole
  5. upon the whole matter
  6. upon the wing
  7. upon't
  8. uposatha
  9. uposathas
  10. Upotipotpon
  11. Upp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upon the wing (page history and authors); 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.

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