wing n.1
1. an oar; often as pair of wings.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hell Upon Earth 6: Pair of Wings, Oars. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: Let’s take an ark and winns Let’s hire a Skuller. |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Pairs of Wings, Oars. Cant. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn). | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
2. an arm.
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| ‘Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 93: Although he lost an eye and wing. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | 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. | |
| 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]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sun. Times (Perth) 7 May 4/7: When his left hand’s full of spirits and his right wing’s full of girl. | |
| Shorty McCabe 213: She put out a wing for him to take. | |
| 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. | |
| 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! | |
| Negro Workaday Songs 184: I cut that yellah nigger right under his left wing. | |
| Law O’ The Lariat 165: An’ with this crippled wing I couldn’ do nothin’ but say what I thought of ’em. | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 12: Wings: Arms. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| (con. 1930s–50s) Night People 118: Wings. Arms. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 196: Lord Thundering Jesus! [...] Now how do you expect to battle with just one wing? | |
| Skin Tight 142: Not with this bum wing. | |
| ‘And Pray Nobody Sees You’ in Woods Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes (1996) 185: My client got shot [...] Clipped in the left wing. | |
| Triggerfish Twist (2002) 409: Agent Mahoney slapped a bandage on his bad wing. | |
| 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.
| Wilds of London (1881) 53: One ‘wing’ (just a skiver of a single leaf) is worth a ‘sixer’ (a 6 oz. loaf). | |
 | 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.
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 165: Close that wing, man. |
In derivatives
one-armed.
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 96: Winged, one-armed. |
SE in slang uses
In derivatives
(N.Z. prison) one’s flared back muscles, intended to display toughness and intimidate one’s fellow.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | 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 phrases
1. in good health.
| 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.
| Sun (N.Y.) 1 Aug. 14/1: Their job is to hunt Gaffney and shoot him on the wing if he doesn’t stop. | |
| 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. | |
| ‘The Pager’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 5 [TV script] Now you on the wing from Boys’ Village. |
(N.Z. prison) to strut around using an affected ‘hard man’ walk in the hope that other prisoners will be intimidated.
| 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. |
(US black) a girl who is under the age of consent, and with whom intercourse may lead to imprisonment for statutory rape.
| 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. |