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Glite Dictionary
buffalo wing

buffalo wing

7 2.6
A deep-fried chicken wing covered in spicy sauce eaten as a starter
  • noun
  • /ˈbʌf.ə.loʊ wɪŋ/
  • US
translation icon : alitas búfalo
  • Every Friday night, we enjoy crispy buffalo wings while watching movies together.
  • spicy buffalo wings
  • bucket of buffalo wings
  • order of buffalo wings

Examples

  • We ordered a dozen buffalo wings to share as an appetizer for the game.

  • Still waiting on those buffalo wings.

    Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

  • -They have free buffalo wings.

    Striptease (1996)

  • I'm never eating Buffalo wings again.

    You, Me and Dupree (2006)

  • We ordered a pitcher of Bud and a round of buffalo wings.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • No cover charge, free buffalo wings with coupon.

    Lucky Numbers (2000)

  • Shelby orders appetizers of jalapeno peppers and buffalo wings.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The waitress took our order: grilled cheese for Rachel, taco salads, and Buffalo wings for Kath and me, and we settled back to wait.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The restaurant is famous for its buffalo wings served with a tangy dipping sauce.

Synonyms

chicken wing
vsbuffalo wing
30 1.0

The wing of a chicken cooked and eaten as a snack

is prepared by deep frying and coated in spicy sauce as an appetizer

How Spicy

buffalo wing
  • US
7 2.6

Surface Forms

buffalo wing singular
buffalo wings plural

Morphology

buffalo + wing

The word 'wing' transparently signals a type of edible wing, but 'buffalo' is unlikely to be interpreted as the place-name origin (Buffalo, NY) by a B1 learner and would more likely be read as the animal, leading to a mistaken literal inference. The dish’s meaning (a spicy chicken-wing preparation named after a city) therefore requires cultural/lexical knowledge beyond the constituent meanings, making the expression only partially predictable.

Etymology

Buffalo wing gets its name from the city Buffalo in New York. One popular story says a bar in 1964 fried chicken wings and tossed them in a hot butter and chili sauce to share with customers, and people began calling the spicy snack 'buffalo wings'.