1. A little wing; also transf. something resembling a little wing, as a petal.
1611. [see 3].
1800. Moore, Anacreon, IV. 19. And flights of loves, in wanton ringlets, Flit around on golden winglets.
1851. Meredith, Poetry of Shelley, 1. See’st thou a Skylark whose glistening winglets ascending Quiver like pulses beneath the melodious dawn?
1855. Allingham, Day & Nt. Songs, Ser. II. The Choice, iii. Pea-bloom winglets.
2. a. Entom. A small appendage at the base of each wing or wing-sheath, as in certain flies and beetles, or on each side of the rostrum in certain weevils. b. Ornith. A process on the terminal joint of a bird’s wing, clothed with small and somewhat stiff feathers: also called bastard or false wing.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 348. The winglets are small concavo-convex scales, of a stiff membranaceous substance.
1862. C. A. Johns, Brit. Birds, 263. The Jay … winglet and greater coverts barred with black, white, and bright blue.
3. A small wing-like appendage on some part of dress.
1611. Florio, Talare,… certaine shooes with winglets as Mercury is fained to weare on his feet.
1870. C. C. Black, trans. Demmin’s Weapons of War, 43. The small winglets that were attached to the shoulder-pieces of the earlier coats of leather and … were sorts of escutcheons.
4. A small projecting part in a piece of mechanism: see quot.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 227. L is the winglet, which in turning along with the spindle, has the power of making it traverse and distribute the thread evenly over the surface of the bobbin.
