on the wing
5
5.1
- idiom
:
en vuelo
- The hawk hovered gracefully, always on the wing as it searched for its next meal.
Examples
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Most of them eat insects that they catch on the wing, so flying insects.
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In the strong Florida sunshine, shadows of butterflies on the wing scud sharp and dark across the sand.
Fiction book (1996) -
Like a bird on the wing
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Though the bird is on the wing
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Always nice to see those stars on the wing.
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Far away, in the distance, she heard the call of a lone bird high on the wing.
Fiction book (1996) -
Like a bird on the wing, over the seas without rest, he must roam .
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I see their glitter, and I dive and catch them, and then I eat them on the wing.
Fiction book (1993) -
There were cicadas in the mimosa and gulls crying on the wing.
Fiction book (1991) -
Many creatures had made the arduous journey, not only by land, but on the wing, soaring high above the pastoral terrain.
Synonyms
24
2.6
Moving through the air like birds or insects
How Airborne
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'while flying/in flight' is directly inferable from combining 'on' (indicating location/state) with 'wing' (the flight-producing body part), so a learner who knows the words can deduce being 'on the wing' = being on wings/in flight. This compositional locative pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows ordinary English usage rather than a highly idiomatic shift, so it is transparently understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
On the wing comes from watching birds and insects that are literally using their wings to fly, so they are 'on the wing' as they move through the air. That's why the phrase now means 'in flight' or 'while flying'.