on the wing

English

Prepositional phrase

on the wing

  1. While flying.
    • 1835 February, Thomas Hutton, "Observations on an Article in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, on thе subject of the Albatross", in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, volume 4, number 38, page 108 :
      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 […] .
    • 1999, Scott Weidensaul, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, 2000 North Point Press edition, →ISBN, page 346 :
      By surviving the rigors of a life on the wing, birds earn another chance to pass on their genes.
  2. (figuratively) In motion.
  3. (figuratively) Departing.
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