backwing

present singular third person backwings · participle present backwinging · participle past backwinged · past backwinged

1. To flap the wings in such a way as to push air forward, thereby slowing forward momentum.

   As he got out, a raven backwinged to a landing in a nearby tree and was scolded by a squirrel who had thought that it was his spruce.

   1998, Dana Stabenow, Fire and Ice, page 212

   2 more examples

   As they drew closer, the cause of their ragged flight became apparent: the lead gryphon flew irregularly, and the two that followed were forced to rush ahead or backwing alternately to keep up.

   2011, Erin Hoffman, Sword of Fire and Sea, →ISBN

   The fire demon had rushed him, and landed a strike that sent the angelic demon skidding back with such force that he had to backwing to stop.

   2016, Selena I. R. Drake, The Lullaby Shriek, →ISBN, page 53

plural backwings

1. An act of backwinging.

   With a disgusted backwing, I let myself down, hard.

   2009, Brenda Cooper, Wings of Creation, →ISBN, page 114

   2 more examples

   The very ground seemed to shake with the landing impact of all those silver and gold dragons, as well as the backwing flaps of over a thousand large, feathered mounts.

   2012, J. Michael Fluck, Dragon Alliance: Dark Storm, →ISBN

   We were just about finished when two large ravens descended with thunderous backwings that sounded like chopper blades.

   2013, Kevin Hearne, Hunted: The Iron Druid Chronicles, →ISBN

2. One of the posterior pair of wings on an insect.

   The forewing is complete, but the backwing disappeared.

   1992, Living with insects

   2 more examples

   The white band on the under side of the backwings is often reduced.

   1952, Zoologische Beitra Ge Aus Uppsala, page 20

   18 of 38 of the females have two black eyespots on the forewings. Seven of those show a tiny white centre in the black eyespots. All female specimens have completely black backwings.

   2007, Lambillionea - Volume 107, page 296

3. The back portion of a bird's wing.

   I require a rigid skeletal shape and vent bones, nothing soft of spongy, excellent musculature, soft feathering and a good backwing and tail

   1972, Britain's Year Book of Pigeon Racing, page 12

   1 more example

   But what I referred to there was, if the backwing of a racer is trimmed, I would not recommend entering that bird in a race in which there was a headwind.

   1980, The American Racing Pigeon News - Volume 96, page 11

4. A wing-like projection on the upper back of some a Wayang puppets.

   These points represent a remnant of the badong or backwing. In fact, only those characters that wear a backwing in wayang kulit should have these two points (see page 37, Rahwana).

   1991, Peter Buurman, Wayang golek: the entrancing world of classical West Javanese puppet theatre

   1 more example

   The colours of the backwing are the following: the gubahan motif must be gilded, the tendrils of the gubahan motife are preferably made blue or or orange, the leaf work must be red and green.

   1988, R. L. Mellema, Wayang Puppets: Carving, Colouring and Symbolism, page 43

5. The flap of a dust jacket that folds around the back cover of a book.

   1 more example

   Mr Roger Opie, a Cornish farmer whose military knowledge would make him a formidable adversary if ever the Duchy declared itself independent, was the reader for whom I first imagined myself to be writing; to his encouragement, his wife Sue added the photographic expertise which contrived the flattering portrait that adorns the backwing of the jacket.

   1984, Hugh McManners, Falklands Commando, page 11

6. A wing at the rear of a building.

   Behind the neo-Renaissance facades were high-rental apartments, and behind these, filling up the deeply cut speculative properties, were labyrinths of dark courts and backwings, one behind the other.

   1989, Richard Joseph Neutra, William Marlin, Nature Near: The Late Essays of Richard Neutra, page 184

   2 more examples

   We are rather stifled by the Administration, however, until the second and third floors of the backwings are completed and we can kick the Applied Mechanics Department and Mineral Industries Department out, when they can move in the new Academic Science Building when that is completed, at which time then we will have space for a lounge.

   1951, The Compass of Sigma Gamma Epsilon - Volume 29, page 162

   Somehow I managed a nod...and Ramses satisfied disappeared and started for the upper levels presumably through one of the backwings that were located parallel but behind the main floors in the complex.

   2017, Ace Finlay, Avilascaca Season 1 Episodes 1-8, →ISBN