flightless

[flahyt-lis]

adjective

incapable of flying: flightless birds such as the moa, rhea, and dodo.

Origin of flightless

First recorded in 1870–75; flight¹ + -less

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for flightless

Historical Examples of flightless

There are flightless birds, but they all live in climates in which they can exist at all seasons.
The Migration of Birds
T. A. Coward
It was probably a poor flier, though not flightless, as Fulica chathamensis was.
Extinct Birds
Walter Rothschild
It is large in the flightless Penguins, which use their wings for swimming.
The Vertebrate Skeleton
Sidney H. Reynolds
Several of these flightless swans were starved to death in 1902.
The Naturalist on the Thames
C. J. Cornish
The wekas or Maori hens are small, flightless birds, averaging when full grown about two and three-quarter pounds.
The Home of the Blizzard
Douglas Mawson

British Dictionary definitions for flightless

flightless

adjective

(of certain birds and insects) unable to flySee also ratite

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

Word Origin and History for flightless

adj.

1875, from flight (n.1) + -less.