different between fledgling vs fledge

English

Alternative forms

• fledgeling

Etymology

From fledge (“prepare for flying”) +? -ling.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fl?d??.l??/

Adjective

fledgling (not comparable)

1. Untried or inexperienced.
   • 2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940:

     His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.

2. Emergent or rising.

Synonyms

• (untried): unfledged, virginal
• (emergent): nascent, emerging

Translations

Noun

fledgling (plural fledglings)

1. A young bird which has just developed its flight feathers (notably wings).
2. An insect that has just fledged, i.e. undergone its final moult to become an adult or imago.
3. (figuratively) An immature, naïve or inexperienced person.

Translations

See also

• hatchling

References

• fledgeling in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Alternative forms

• flidge, flitch, flish, flig, flush

Etymology

From Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, from Old English *fly??e (“able to fly, fledged”) (attested in *unfly??e, unfligge (“unfledged”)), from Proto-Germanic *flugjaz (“able to fly, fledged”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to run, flow, be swift, flee, fly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl?d?/
• Rhymes: -?d?

Verb

fledge (third-person singular simple present fledges, present participle fledging, simple past and past participle fledged)

1. (transitive) To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.
2. (intransitive) To grow, cover or be covered with feathers.
3. (transitive) To decorate with feathers.
4. (intransitive) To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect.

Derived terms

• fledgling
• full-fledged
• unfledged

Related terms

• fletch
• fletcher
• fligger

Adjective

fledge (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.