fledge
Verb
Verb Forms: fledged, fledging, fledges
- To grow feathers necessary for flight; to raise a young bird.
- feed, care for, and rear young birds for flight
- decorate with feathers
- "fledge an arrow"
- grow feathers
- To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.
- To grow, cover or be covered with feathers.
- To decorate with feathers.
- To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect.
Adj
- Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.
Examples
- After hours of practice, he was ready to FLEDGE his new vocabulary on the Scrabble board.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, from Old English *flyċġe (“able to fly, fledged”) (attested in *unflyċġe, unfligge (“unfledged”)), from Proto-West Germanic *flugi, from Proto-Germanic *flugjaz (“able to fly, fledged”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to run, flow, be swift, flee, fly”).
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: Dutch vlug (“fledged, able to fly, nimble, swift”), Low German flügg (“fledged”), German flügge, German flücke (“fledged”), Icelandic fleygur (“able to fly, fledged”)
Scrabble Score: 11
fledge: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfledge: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fledge: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 13
fledge: valid Words With Friends Word