Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wing n.1

1. an oar; often as pair of wings.

[UK]Hell Upon Earth 6: Pair of Wings, Oars.
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: Let’s take an ark and winns Let’s hire a Skuller.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Pairs of Wings, Oars. Cant.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. an arm.

[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK] ‘Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 93: Although he lost an eye and wing.
[US]J.C. Harris Free Joe (1907) 105: Dat Marse Fess Trunion wuz a-cuttin’ he eye at Miss Lady, en den I ’low ter myse’f, ’Shoo, man! ... you nee’nter be a-drappin’ yo’ wing ’roun’ Miss Lady, kaze she too high-strung fer dat.
[UK]Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 242: Rixey had broken his arm. My word [...] how the honest, humble, unwashed sympathisers of Old-Man-With-A-Wing-Up did crowd into the room.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 7 May 4/7: When his left hand’s full of spirits and his right wing’s full of girl.
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe 213: She put out a wing for him to take.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 3rd sect. 17/4: The main claim of a Midland district cocky to be a descendant of Lord Horatio Nelson is the fact that he (the cocky) has a wounded wing and a glass eye.
[US]A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 127: My name’s Wingie. [...] I’m an old soldier; was at Bull Run. Run so damn fast I lost my right wing, hah, hah, hah!
[US]Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 184: I cut that yellah nigger right under his left wing.
[US]O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 165: An’ with this crippled wing I couldn’ do nothin’ but say what I thought of ’em.
[UK]Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: Wings: Arms.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 9 Oct. 20: Up pops a banter play built on a coke frame frocked down to Ain’t It a Shame [...] and put her wing in his.
[US]N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 18: One night he pistol-whupped two ’boes and they came back and shoved him under the wheels. That was how he lost his right wing.
[US](con. 1930s–50s) D. Wells Night People 118: Wings. Arms.
[Can]R. Caron Go-Boy! 196: Lord Thundering Jesus! [...] Now how do you expect to battle with just one wing?
[US]C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 142: Not with this bum wing.
[US]G.A. Haywood ‘And Pray Nobody Sees You’ in Woods Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes (1996) 185: My client got shot [...] Clipped in the left wing.
[US]T. Dorsey Triggerfish Twist (2002) 409: Agent Mahoney slapped a bandage on his bad wing.
[US]J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 206: Maybe I’ve only got one wing, but I’ll get ’er done!

3. (UK prison) a single leaf of rolling tobacco.

[UK]J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 53: One ‘wing’ (just a skiver of a single leaf) is worth a ‘sixer’ (a 6 oz. loaf).
Greenwood Gaol Birds n.p.: [...] a mere taste that can only be laid on the tongue and sucked like a small sweetmeat (it is called a wing, and is not larger or of more substance than a man’s little finger-nail), is ‘good’ for a six-ounce loaf [F&H].

4. (US) a car door.

[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 165: Close that wing, man.

In derivatives

SE in slang uses

In derivatives

wings of death (n.)

(N.Z. prison) one’s flared back muscles, intended to display toughness and intimidate one’s fellow.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/2: wings of death n pl. the ‘wings’ caused by an inmate’s flared back muscles and jutting arms as he boob walks.

In compounds

wingman (n.)

(US) partner, backup.

[US]M. Lacher On the Bro’d 40: He was his dad’s wingman at bars when he was in kindergarten.

In phrases

on the wing (adj.)

1. in good health.

[US]Daily Public Ledger (Maysville, KY) 8 Apr. 1/2: When you’re up and well again, once more ‘on the wing’.

2. (US) on the run.

[US]Sun (N.Y.) 1 Aug. 14/1: Their job is to hunt Gaffney and shoot him on the wing if he doesn’t stop.
[US]C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 106: I took my flashlight, pointed it into the windows and saw that Brenda had moved. The Bitch Wolf was on the wing again.
[US]Simon & Burns ‘The Pager’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 5 [TV script] Now you on the wing from Boys’ Village.
wing it (v.)

(N.Z. prison) to strut around using an affected ‘hard man’ walk in the hope that other prisoners will be intimidated.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/2: wing v. ? wing it (of an inmate) to adopt a saunter (usually in the prison yard) during which the chest, back and shoulder muscles are arranged in a ‘front lat spread’ in an attempt to make one look bigger, tougher and more intimidating [...] wings n pl. a nickname given to an inmate who wings it.
wings over Sing-Sing [? the result of statutory rape is that one will ‘fly’ into prison]

(US black) a girl who is under the age of consent, and with whom intercourse may lead to imprisonment for statutory rape.

[US]D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 88: He describes the youngest of [girls], the least experienced, and hence the most dangerous, if he’s in California, as ‘San Quentin Quail,’ or ‘Wings Over Sing Sing,’ if you are in New York.