a. Having swift wings, flying swiftly, rapid in flight (lit. and fig.).
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. v. 15. Yet are these Feete … Swift-winged with desire to get a Graue.
1592. Soliman & Pers., II. ii. 33. Thou great commander of the swift wingd winds.
1619. A. Newman, Pleas. Vis., B ij. When youthfull Spleene Had ne’re the wiles … of Pleasure seene, Nor dreampt, how pretious is swift-winged Time.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XV. 566. The hawk, Apollo’s swift-wing’d messenger.
1785. Burns, Cotter’s Sat. Nt., v. The social hours, swift-wing’d, unnotic’d fleet.
1874. Wood, Nat. Hist., 696. The first family of the Moths is the Sphingidæ, a group which contains a great number of swift-winged insects.
