wing bars

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
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
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
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