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Wing vs Pinion - What's the difference?

wing | pinion |

As nouns the difference between wing and pinion

is that wing is an appendage of an animal's (bird, bat, insect) body that enables it to fly while pinion is a wing.

As verbs the difference between wing and pinion

is that wing is to injure slightly (as with a gunshot), especially in the arm while pinion is to cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.

wing

English

(wikipedia)

Alternative forms

* whing (obsolete) * weng (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An appendage of an animal's (bird, bat, insect) body that enables it to fly.
  • (slang) Human arm.
  • Part of an airplane that produces the lift for rising into the air.
  • One of the large pectoral fins of a flying fish.
  • One of the broad, thin, anterior lobes of the foot of a pteropod, used as an organ in swimming.
  • (botany) Any membranaceous expansion, such as that along the sides of certain stems, or of a fruit of the kind called samara.
  • (botany) Either of the two side petals of a papilionaceous flower.
  • A side shoot of a tree or plant; a branch growing up by the side of another.
  • Passage by flying; flight.
    • to take wing
  • * Shakespeare
    • Light thickens; and the crow / Makes wing to the rooky wood.
  • Motive or instrument of flight; means of flight or of rapid motion.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Fiery expedition be my wing .
  • A part of something that is lesser in size than the main body, such as an extension from the main building.
  • Anything that agitates the air as a wing does, or is put in winglike motion by the action of the air, such as a fan or vane for winnowing grain, the vane or sail of a windmill, etc.
  • An ornament worn on the shoulder; a small epaulet or shoulder knot.
  • A fraction of a political movement. Usually implies a position apart from the mainstream center position.
  • An organizational grouping in a military aviation service:
  • # (British) A unit of command consisting of two or more squadrons and itself being a sub-unit of a group or station.
  • # (US) A larger formation of two or more groups, which in turn control two or more squadrons.
  • (British) A panel of a car which encloses the wheel area, especially the front wheels.
  • (nautical) A platform on either side of the bridge of a vessel, normally found in pairs.
  • (nautical) That part of the hold or orlop of a vessel which is nearest the sides. In a fleet, one of the extremities when the ships are drawn up in line, or when forming the two sides of a triangle.
    • (Totten)
  • (sports) A position in several field games on either side of the field.
  • (sports) A player occupying such a position, also called a winger
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author= , title=Wales 2-1 Montenegro , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The Tottenham wing was causing havoc down the right and when he broke past the bemused Sasa Balic once again, Bellamy was millimetres from connecting with his cross as the Liverpool striker hurled himself at the ball.}}
  • (botany) A flattened extension of a tridimensional plant organ.
  • (typography, informal, rare) =
  • * 1985 , David Grambs, Literary Companion Dictionary , page 378
    • ? wing , wedge, h?cek, inverted circumflex (Karel ?apek )
  • One of the sides of the stage in a theatre.

    • Synonyms

    * (panel of a car) fender (US), guard (Australia) * (sports position) forward

    Derived terms

    * left wing * on the wing * redwing * right wing * take under one's wing * wingman * wing it * winged * winger

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To injure slightly (as with a gunshot), especially in the arm.
  • (lb) To fly.
  • *
  • *:Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
  • To add a wing (extra part) to.
  • (lb) To act or speak extemporaneously; to improvise; to wing it.
  • (lb) To throw.

    • pinion

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) pignon, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A wing.
  • * , II.v
    • Therefore do nimble-pinion' d doves draw Love, / And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.
  • * 1839 ,
    • Never seraph spread a pinion / Over fabric half so fair.
  • The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
    • (Johnson)
  • Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
  • * , III.xii
    • An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither / He sends so poor a pinion of his wing
  • A moth of the genus Lithophane .
  • (obsolete) A fetter for the arm.
    • (Ainsworth)

    Verb

    (en verb) :; (lb)
  • (lb) To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
  • * 1577 , (Barnabe Googe) (translator), (Konrad Heresbach) (author), Foure Bookes of Husbandrie , book iv (1586), page 169:
    • They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them.
  • * 1641–2 , Henry Best (author), Donald Woodward (editor), The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642: With a Glossary and Linguistic Commentary by Peter McClure , (Oxford University Press)/(British Academy) (1984), ISBN 0197260292 (10), ISBN 9780197260296 (13), page 115:
    • When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges.
  • * ibidem , page 129:
    • The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them.
  • * 1665–7 , (Abraham Cowley), The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley (fifth edition, 1678), “Several Di?cour?es by way of E??ays, in Ver?e and Pro?e”, essay 9: ‘The ?hortne?s of Life and uncertainty of Riches’, closing verses, verse 3 ( page 138):
    • Suppo?e, thou Fortune could to tamene?s bring, // And clip or pinion her wing; // Suppo?e thou could’?t on Fate ?o far prevail // As not to cut off thy Entail.
  • * 1727 , Peter Longueville, Philip Quarll (1816), page 67:
    • The two old ducks…being pinioned , could not fly away.
  • * 1849 , Daniel Jay Browne, The American Poultry Yard (1855), page 242:
    • They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing.
  • (lb) To bind the arms of any one, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding; to shackle.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned , and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck?; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”}}
  • * 1916 , , Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 80
    • Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter.
  • #
  • #* , V.ii
  • Know, sir that I / Will not wait pinion' d at your master's court, / Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye / Of dull Octavia.
  • #* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
  • I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me.
  • # To bind fast to something, or together.
    • Derived terms
    * * *
    References
    * “ Pinion, v.'']” listed on page 883/2–3 of volume VII (O–P, ed. , 1908) of ''[[w:Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles] (1st ed.)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) pignon.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The smallest gear in a gear drive train.
  • * 1844 ,
    • A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels.
    Derived terms
    * rack and pinion English terms with transferred senses