sb. pl.
† 1. Wings having a watered or wavy surface. nonce-use [after water camlet].
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. viii. 74. The Camlet-Flie, in shape like a moth with fine diapred, or water-wings. [Cf. water camlet s.v. CAMLET sb. b.]
2. Organs of propulsion in the water.
1835–6. Owen, in Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 294/2. We have already alluded to the use which the Penguin makes of its diminutive anterior extremities as water-wings, or fins.
3. (See quot.)
1841. Brees, Gloss. Civil Engin., 293. Water-wings, the walls erected on the banks of a river next bridges, to secure the foundations from the action of the current; they are usually battered towards the stream, [etc.]. Hence in later Dicts.
