fledge
Americanverb (used with object)
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to bring up (a young bird) until it is able to fly.
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to furnish with or as if with feathers or plumage.
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to provide (an arrow) with feathers.
verb (used without object)
adjective
verb
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(tr) to feed and care for (a young bird) until it is able to fly
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Also called: fletch. (tr) to fit (something, esp an arrow) with a feather or feathers
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(intr) (of a young bird) to grow feathers
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(tr) to cover or adorn with or as if with feathers
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fledge
1350–1400; Middle English flegge (fully-)fledged, Old English *flecge, as variant of -flycge; cognate with Old High German flucki, Middle Low German vlügge (> German flügge ); akin to fly 2
Explanation
When baby birds fledge, they grow feathers that are big enough for flying. Just after they fledge, birds take their first practice flights. You can use the verb fledge in several ways — first, to describe what happens when a bird's feathers grow in. A mother bird — or human — who cares for and raises a young bird can also be said to fledge it. You can also talk about the process of putting feathers on something, especially a hunting arrow, this way: "Once you fledge the arrow, you can use it with your bow." The Old English root word is flycge, "having feathers, or fit to fly."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It typically takes baby eagles 10 to 14 weeks to fledge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026
When the eggs hatch, the birds are then reared to point of fledge.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Managing people and predators around nesting beaches, with the modest goal of helping pairs of oystercatchers fledge half a chick more each year, brought a 45% population surge by 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
It gave up its life within minutes of your birth, because that was its evolved aim—to grow you out of your birth mother so that you could fledge the maternal cavity.
From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2024
The eggs hatch around the first week in June, and the nestlings are ready to fledge in early July.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
The longest he disappears for at the championships is 12 hours, said Davis, adding: "It is his playground, I mean, he pretty much fledged here at 18 weeks old."
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Once their cores become hot and dense enough, hydrogen fusion will ignite, transforming them into fully fledged stars.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
As a recently fledged bird hops around on the ground, unfamiliar choughs swoop down and gently herd it away to join them—that’s how desperate these birds are for helpers.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
Thai Randolph spent the best part of seven years building comedian Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat from an upstart production studio into a fully fledged media company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Work will stop on the bridge on Route 28 until the young peregrine falcons are fledged.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Both types of weather can reduce body mass at fledging by as much as 3%.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
Antonio Tejero Molina, the Spanish Civil Guard officer who led a failed 1981 coup that ended up strengthening Spain's fledging democracy, has died aged 93, his family's lawyer said Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
Among the Facebook watchers excitement is building ahead of the expected fledging.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
YouTube TV backed away from its earlier demand to fold programming created for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s fledging streaming service, onto the YouTube platform as part of its customer packages at no extra cost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025
Still, one reporter insisted on the superior knowledge of the fledging Commander Kane, “nothing had been left undone.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
