fledge

Meanings

Verb

• To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.
• To grow, cover or be covered with feathers.
• To decorate with feathers.
• To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect.

Adjective

• Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.

Origin

• From Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, from Old English *flyċġe (attested in *unflyċġe, unfligge), from Proto-Germanic *flugjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *plewk-.
• From Proto-Germanic: Dutch vlug ("fledged, able to fly, nimble, swift"), Low German flügge ("fledged"), German flügge, German flücke ("fledged"), Icelandic fleygur ("able to fly, fledged")