wing, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wing v.

[lit. ‘to hit in the SE wing’]

1. to shoot but not kill; to wound.

1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin II ix: With Parker and Rodney we’ll trim the mounseer; / We’ll tickle the Spaniard, and wing the mynheer.
1797		M. Robinson Walsingham II 161: ‘Hold him! hold the rascal!’ vociferated the man in office. [...] ‘Not till I have winged this bat of antiquity,’ cried the young man, at the same moment snatching a staff from his feeble guard and aiming it.
1817		M. Edgeworth Love and Law I ii: When once you have cast or non-shuted your man in the courts, ’tis as good as winged him in the field.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 229: I’ve a mighty pleasant knack of winging a few female bush fighters.
1841		Mons. Merlin 9 Oct. 3/2: Let him and his gang beware! To be ‘winged’ with a bag of stolen property on the shoulder, must be more awkward than plesant.
1847		Thackeray Punch’s Prize Novelists: Phil Fogarty in Burlesques (1903) 208: I, who am a pretty good hand at a snipe, thought a man was bigger, and that I could wing him if I had a mind.
1859		G.H. Miles Mary’s Birthday II i: Speak out, or by the blood of Nimrod I’ll wing you.
1863		Southern Field and Fireside (Augusta, GA) 5 Sept. in A.P. Hudson Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) 223: Shoot the other two; we’ve winged one of them!
1868		Sportsman 18 Apr. 4/1: Notes on News [...] [T]o out with and get wounded by hot-headed young man, who has the satisfaction [of] having ‘winged’ eminent diplomatist.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 86: You really have winged him.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 205: Why didn’t the French Count kill you instead of your winging him.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 166: ‘[D]ere’s been a-many an’ a-many a guy huntin’ de pup in his day, but I’m de first wan dat ever winged him’.
1898		Regiment 9 July 230/2: I ‘winged’ the hindmost [attacker], for he gave a great cry, and staggered and reeled for some paces.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 15 Dec. 163: I jest winged that feller. He’s not hurt bad.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Oct. 14/1: There was nothing for it but to wing the demented seeker of the keys, and so the patrol man fired.
1915		Tainton Courier 6 Jan. 6/3: These old German aeroplanes hovered over us [...] We were all having great fun blazing away [...] I am certain we winged a couple of the beggars.
1920		Marvel 4 Sept. 18: I’ve only winged them. My eyesight isn’t so – good – as it was – or I would – have killed.
1925		Meade Globe (KS) 19 Feb. 2/1: He’s not hurt much. I just winged him.
1928		A.W. Upfield House of Cain 122: Wing him, Monty! Only wing him!
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act II: The Federal men got him. He winged one of them.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 71: He never knows he wings me.
1953		Kramer & Karr Teen-Age Gangs 22: Two or three of the bastards are winged and the rest’ll run like hell.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 236: Only winged the Turk bastard.
1987		M. Bail Holden’s Performance (1989) 311: The shot was aimed to wing me in the leg.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 66: Pancho [...] fired two shots that winged the pie plate before snatching it out of the air.
2006		D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 102: He can already see Joey winging shots at him.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘I winged him, I think’.

2. to hit with a ball, or missile.

1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! I 176: May I be eternally condemned [...] if I wouldn’t have winged him, if he had been as mad as a buffalo bull that has had a rifle-ball flattened against his forehead.
1911		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 34: Judge!! I didn’t hardly git in the house before me wife wing me on the peeper wid a loaf of dummy an —.
1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top 35: Don’t duck at the crack of a bullet, Yank; the danger has passed, — you never hear the one that wings you.
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 133: With it I might wing that man Bingham.
1943		Bayler & Carnes Last Man Off Wake Island 241: He had told my informant that he ‘just winged a few.’.
1960		J. Iggulden Storms of Summer 245: ‘Are you sure you winged him?’ ‘He’s dead . . . took his head half away.’.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 153: The farmer swore and winged a handful of guts in the boy’s face.
2005		G. Pelecanos Drama City 257: I had the arm to do it [...] I could wing some rocks.

3. to complain.

1904

G.V. Hobart Jim Hickey 14: ‘Bumped, good and hard, here in the tall grass,’ Jim complained [...] ‘Say! it has me winging all right, and that’s no idle hoot!’.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

wing (it) (v.) [one fig. ‘takes wing’]

1. to improvise, to ad lib, to play a situation by ear without practice or rehearsal; thus winging n.

1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 96: Wing it, a theatre phrase for actors who are prompted on their parts from the wings.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 22: Let any of these fellows who own horses get a soak on, and they get to be a kind of a village pest, with their talk about blowing up in the stretch [...] etc. Now, since when did a horse get an arm? They have got me winging. I can’t follow them at all.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 210: Seeing no harm in winging a little, he replies, with absolute truth.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 181: It’s got me wingin’, too. I keep right on workin’ — I lift a boob for $106.60 on a mainstem caboose yesterday.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 230: You don’t quite put that over – you ain’t up to the lines yet; you’re still winging the part.
1941		Lena Horne ‘Aunt Hagar’s Blues’ 🎵 Said he, ‘No wingin’, no ragtime singin’ tonight.’.
1945		W.R. Burnett Tomorrow’s Another Day 183: [A]fter the first few jumps she was ahead of the field and on the rail, winging.
1969		C. Brown Mr Jive-Ass Nigger 191: How could she possibly know about the jiveass nigger? [...] Could she ever know he was winging it?
1979		E. Torres After Hours 57: They can’t wing it any more. Gotta do the paperwork.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 117: I guess I could just wing it. But all I know for sure is the very last scene.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 243: She was winging it with the lyrics.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 67: She was obviously winging it, so Fry dropped the subject.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 59: He hates having to accept that there are some things he just has to wing.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] I was winging it.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 107: He’d wing it, wham-bam.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

2010

Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 112: Those winging-it, what-the-hell situations.

3. to move fast, to ‘fly’.

1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson : I ain’t had no sleep in three days, but I ain’t wingin’ yet, pal. I kin keep it up.
1917		Van Loan ‘The Last Chance’ in Old Man Curry 109: Still up in front and winging, just winging.
1960		Mad mag. June 46: Some cruising stud come winging.
1960		Baltimore Sun (MD) Sun. Mag. 4 Dec. 9/2: Blowing the pad means leaving, going home, flaking off, winging it, squealing out.
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 25: The more daring passenger learned to wing aboard passenger trains between the coal tender [...] and the baggage car.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 237: ‘Another two hours [...] Maybe less if you wing it.’ So Paul Berlin winged it. Flat-out through the Anatolian flatlands.

wing out (v.)

(UK black) to leave, to go away.

1997

C. Newland Scholar 137: All right people, I’m wingin’ out anyway.