Meanings
plural underwings
- A hind wing on an insect.
The upper wings of the moth which Jacob held were undoubtedly marked with kidney-shaped spots of a fulvous hue. But there was no crescent upon the underwing.
1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC - biologyThe underside of a bird's wing.
The ‘white-tailed’ kites in the genus Elanus (‘kite’) are small, gull-like, grey-and-white hawks with black forewing patches and varying amounts of black on the underwings.
2019, Stephen Debus, “Small Kites, Genus Elanus”, in Birds of Prey of Australia: A Field Guide, 3rd edition, Clayton South, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, part II (Handbook), page 113
Origin
Cite this entry
underwing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underwing
“underwing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underwing. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “underwing,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underwing.
Source: underwing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.