Also 6–7 flidge, 9 dial. fleg, flig. [f. prec.]
1. intr. Of a young bird: To acquire feathers large enough for flight; to become fully plumed. Also fig.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas. I. 86. A litle birde (saith he) called the Larke, builded her neste in a Wheate field, and when the Wheate was ready to be ripped, her yonge began to fledge.
1637. Greene’s Theeves falling out, Pref. In Westminster, the Strand, Holborn, and the chiefe Places of Resort about London, doe they every Day build their Nests, every Houre flidge, and in Tearme Time especially flutter they Abroad in Flocks.
1865. Swinburne, Poems & Ballads, Félise, 69.
| Birds quick to fledge and fly at call | |
| Are quick to fall. |
2. trans. To bring up (a young bird) until its feathers are grown and it is able to fly. Also fig.
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet, C b. They [the Martins] both breed in Churches, and hauing fledgde their young ones, leaue nothing behind them but durt.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 32. Sol. And Shylocke for his own part knew the bird was fledg’d.
1623. Webster, Duchess Malfy, III. v.
| Your wiser buntings, | |
| Now they are fledg’d, are gone. |
1659. D. Pell, Impr. Sea, Ded., A v b. This Book … was hatched and flidged in one of your ships.
1760. Fawkes, Anacreon, xxxiii. 15.
| Some, quite fledg’d and fully grown, | |
| Nurse the Younglings as their own; | |
| These when feather’d others feed, | |
| And thus propagate their Breed. |
3. To provide or furnish with feathers or plumage; to ‘wing’ for flight; also, to deck or adorn with feathers.
1614. C. Brooke, Eglogues, To W. Browne, 21.
| Whose tender Pinions, scarcely fledg’d in show, | |
| Could make his way with whitest Swans in Poe. |
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 124.
| She said: the sandals of celestial mould, | |
| Fledg’d with ambrosial plumes, and rich with gold. |
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 213.
| But the world’s time is time in masquerade. | |
| Theirs, should I paint them, has his pinions fledg’d | |
| With motley plumes. |
fig. 1847. Tennyson, The Princess, IV. 18.
| Then she, ‘Let some one sing to us; lightlier move | |
| The minutes fledged with music.’ |
4. To cover as with feathers or down; also, to form a feather-like covering for.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 23. The Iuuenall (the Prince your Master) whose Chin is not yet fledg’d, I will sooner haue a beard grow in the Palme of my hand, then he shall get one on his cheeke.
1773. Poetry, in Ann. Reg., 235.
| Then talks of sport; how many wild-ducks seen! | |
| What flocks of widgeon too had fledg’d the green! |
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 22.
| The bents | |
| And coarser grass upspearing o’er the rest, | |
| Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine | |
| Conspicuous, and in bright apparel clad | |
| And fledged with icy feathers, nod superb. |
1814. Cary, Dante, Paradise, IX. 96.
| Long as it suited the unripen’d down | |
| That fledg’d my cheek. |
1820. Keats, Ode to Psyche, 55.
| Far, far around shall those dark-cluster’d trees | |
| Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep. |
1888. Lowell, Recall, in Heartsease & Rue, 91.
| Nay, come although the boughs be bare, | |
| Though snowflakes fledge the summer’s nest, | |
| And in some far Ausonian air | |
| The thrush, your minstrel, warm his breast. |
5. To fit (an arrow) with a feather; to feather. Cf. FLETCH v.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 596. They export whale-oil, furs, and eagles’ feathers to fledge arrows with.
1808. Moore, Corruption, V. 96.
| Like a young eagle, who has lent his plume | |
| To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom, | |
| See their own feathers pluck’d, to wing the dart | |
| Which rank corruption destines for their heart! |
1871. Rossetti, Poems, Troy Town, xiii.
| Cupid took another dart, | |
| (O Troy Town!) | |
| Fledged it for another heart, | |
| Winged the shaft with the heart’s desire, | |
| Drew the string and said, ‘Depart!’ |
Hence Fledged ppl. a., lit. and fig.; sometimes in combinations as full-, half-, new-fledged; Fledging vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1579. E. K., in Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Ep. Ded. So flew Theocritus, as you may perceiue he was all ready full fledged.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Laws Candy, I. ii.
| How that yong-man, who was not fledg’d nor skil’d | |
| In Martiall play, was even as ignorant | |
| As childish. |
1659. D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 98. This may pull down … your flidged plumes.
1774. White, in Phil. Trans., LXV. 268. I … found they had made very little progress towards a fledged state, but were still naked and helpless.
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scotl., 35.
| Alas! not long the parents’ partial eye | |
| Shall view the fledging wing; ne’er shall they see | |
| The timorous pinion’s first essay at flight. |
1833. Whewell, Astron. & Gen. Physics, i. 32. The pairing, nesting, hatching, fledging, and flight of birds, for instance, occupy each its particular time of the year; and, together with a proper period of rest, fill up the twelve months.
1865. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Love at Sea, 17.
| Our seamen are fledged Loves, | |
| Our masts are bills of doves, | |
| Our decks fine gold. |
1887. The Saturday Review, LXIV. 12 Nov., 66/2. Such denials merely serve to mark the fact that thought is already fluttering, though it is not yet full fledged.
