wing bar

Noun

wing bar (plural wing bars)

1. A band of contrasting color or of feathers with a distinct appearance that crosses a bird's wing.
   • The chin and throat are also white, like the wing bar, which is strikingly visible in flight.1980, Carl Fredrik Lundevall, Jim Flegg, The British ornithologists' guide to bird life, page 192
   • Selection affecting the melanization threshold could likewise reduce patch number, which should occur in the reverse order (loss of rump patch followed by loss of crown stripe and finally loss of wing bar.2003, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution, →ISBN, page 257
2. A sand bar or spit at the side of a river, bay, or harbor.
   • The harbour entrance is the result of the inability of the shore drift to build a complete wing bar because of the scour created by the great tidal range in this area.1970, Maritime Sediments - Volumes 1-4, page 12
   • Wing bar on Shetucket River below Frog Brook shows location of ice and drift dam that attained elevation of 82 m (270 ft).1977, Geological Society of America, Geological Society of America Bulletin
3. A support strut on for the wing of an airplane.
   • In a flying machine, a supporting surface comprising a flexible body, a fixed front wing bar, a centrally pivoted rear wing bar, flexible ribs connecting said bars, slidable supports for the rear wing bar, and sustaining springs associated with said supports.1912, United States. Patent Office, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 497
   • In an aeroplane having superposed aerofoils each provided with a leading edge bar, a trailing edge bar, a central wing bar designed to resist greater lift than drift stresses and positioned approximately at the most forward center of pressure, a rear wing bar designed to resist greater drift than...1919, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, volume 46, issue 2., page 3041
4. One of two shallow bars on either side of the flue of a small boiler, designed to fill the space resulting from the extreme curvature of the flue.
   • ...the tendency is to wedge the metal sheets which compose the flume between the wings of the inner or wing bar.1913, Engineering News-record - Volume 70, page 1317