a. [f. WING sb. + -LESS.] Having no wings; destitute of wings.
Also applied by extension to birds having rudimentary wings not used for flight.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 808. Mamuques … Foodless they live;… Wing-less, they fly.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 50. Anthrenus,… the wingless Hornet.
1704. Petiver, Gazophyl., II. 13. This wingless Wasp I have had from Virginia.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 235. They differ from Bignoniaceæ in their wingless seeds.
1835. Wordsw., Athens & Attica, xiv. The statue of Victory in this temple, was sculptured wingless.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 125. The apteryx … a New Zealand wingless bird.
1910. Encycl. Brit., II. 233/1. Many wingless insects—such as lice, fleas and certain earwigs and cockroaches.
fig. 1598. Bastard, Chrestol., IV. vi. 80. As if my thoughtes … Winglesse & footelesse, now like snailes did creepe.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., II. 343. Our freedom chain’d; quite wingless our desire.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 48. The wingless, crawling hours.
1827. Hood, Retrospective Rev., v. My joys are wingless all and dead.
1873. C. E. Norton, Lett. (1913), I. 460. I have had to read of late some wingless verse, and it was a delightful refreshment to find in your sonnet poetry that soared.
Hence Winglessness.
1859. Morning Herald (Sydney), 23 Aug., 3/3. Victory, it is said, should not sit but stand. Does not the sitting posture imply permanence, like the winglessness of the Nike referred to in Antholog?
1890. Universal Rev., April, 536. The winglessness of the Madeira beetles.
