fledge

English

Alternative forms

• flidge, flig, flish, flitch, flush (all dialectal or obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, from Old English *flyċġe (“able to fly, fledged”) (attested in *unflyċġe, unfligge (“unfledged”)), from Proto-West Germanic *flugi, from Proto-Germanic *flugjaz (“able to fly, fledged”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to run, flow, be swift, flee, fly”).

Cognates

From Proto-Germanic: Dutch vlug (“fledged, able to fly, nimble, swift”), Low German flügg (“fledged”), German flügge, German flücke (“fledged”), Icelandic fleygur (“able to fly, fledged”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flɛd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɛdʒ

Verb

fledge (third-person singular simple present fledges, present participle fledging, simple past and past participle fledged)

1. (transitive) To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.
2. (intransitive) To grow, cover or be covered with feathers.
3. (transitive) To decorate with feathers.
4. (intransitive) To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect.

Derived terms

• fledgling
• full-fledged
• unfledged

Related terms

• fletch
• fletcher
• fligger

Adjective

fledge (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     his shoulders, fledge with wings