bastard wing

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noun Ornithology.

alula (def. 1).

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Origin of bastard wing

First recorded in 1765–75

Words nearby bastard wing

bastard pointing, bastardry, bastard-saw, bastard title, bastard toadflax, bastard wing, bastardy, baste, bastel house, baster, bast fiber

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use bastard wing in a sentence

To borrow an old right-wing talking point, these people are angry no matter what we do.
Harry Shearer on The Dangerous Business of Satire|Lloyd Grove|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There is, however, a separate wing of AQAP designed to inspire their followers to conduct attacks against the West.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre|Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He sometimes surmised that it was because he was too outspokenly identified with the diminished liberal wing of the party.
Ed Brooke: The Senate's Civil Rights Pioneer and Prophet of a Post-Racial America|John Avlon|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Limbaugh makes comments like this because his right-wing fans require a non–stop diet of race-baiting red meat.
Rush Limbaugh’s Fear of a Black James Bond|Dean Obeidallah|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST

In other words, this is a very small vast-right-wing-conspiracy.
How Canadian Oilmen Pinkwash the Keystone Pipeline|Jay Michaelson|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Done, says he, why let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each wing.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
His idea was that there would be ample time later to order a concentration on either wing or on the centre.
Napoleon's Marshals|R. P. Dunn-Pattison
As it was he had to press Nejdi into a fast gallop before he could clear the left wing of the advancing army.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
The male Black Redstart has also a white patch on the wing caused by the pale, nearly white, margins of the feathers.
Birds of Guernsey (1879)|Cecil Smith
I watched him wing his god-like way up through the still, soft air till he was lost to view.
Uncanny Tales|Various

British Dictionary definitions for bastard wing

bastard wing

noun

a tuft of feathers attached to the first digit of a bird, distinct from the wing feathers attached to the other digits and the ulnaAlso called: alula

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012