Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WING, n. [Sax. gehwing; Sw. and Dan. vinge. The word signifies the side, end or extremity.]

1. The limb of a fowl by which it flies. In a few species of fowls, the wings do not enable them to fly; as is the case with the dodo, ostrich, great auk, and penguin; but in the two former, the wings assist the fowls in running.
2. The limb of an insect by which flies.
3. In botany, the side petal of a papilionaceous coral; also, an appendage of seeds, by means of which they are wafted in the air and scattered; also, any membranous or leafy dilatation of a footstalk, or of the angles of a stem, branch or flower-stalk, or of a calyx. – Martyn. Cyc.
4. Flight; passage by the wing; as, to be on the wing; to take wing.
5. Means of flying; acceleration. Fear adds wings to flight.
6. Motive or incitement of flight. Then fiery expedition be my wing. – Shak.
7. The flank or extreme body or part of an army. – Dryden.
8. Any side-piece. – Mortimer.
9. In gardening, a side-shoot. – Cyc.
10. In architecture, a side building, less than the main edifice.
11. In fortification, the longer sides of horn-works, crown-works, &c. – Cyc.
12. In a fleet, the ships on the extremities, when ranged in a line, or when forming the two sides of a triangle.
13. In a ship, the wings are those parts of the hold and orlop deck, which are nearest the sides.
14. In Scripture, protection; generally in the plural. – Ps. lxiii. Exod. xix. On the wings of the wind, with the utmost velocity. – Ps. xviii.