fledge

(flĕj)

v. fledged, fledg·ing, fledg·es

v.tr.

1. To raise (a young bird) until it is ready to leave the nest: a pair of ducks that fledged several young.

2. To cover with or as if with feathers.

3. Archaic To provide (an arrow) with feathers.

v.intr.

1. To grow the plumage necessary for flight.

2. To leave the nest: nestlings that are about to fledge.

[Probably from obsolete fledge, feathered, from Middle English flegge, from Old English *flycge; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fledged

(flɛdʒd)

adj

See fully fledged

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	fledged - (of birds) having developed feathers or plumage; often used in combination mature unfledged, immature - (of birds) not yet having developed feathers; "a small unfledged sparrow on the window sill"
	2.	fledged - (of an arrow) equipped with feathers vaned feathered - having or covered with feathers; "our feathered friends"

Translations

fledged

[fledʒd] ADJ → plumado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

fledged

adj bird → flügge ? fully fledged

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

All the air was cool and fresh; the harvests were gathered home, the young birds were full fledged, the hops were plucked, and apples were ripe.

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May the omen be an egg without meat; may it never become fledged; may that bird never perch upon your roof, O King!"

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As to what I dare, I'm a old bird now, as has dared all manner of traps since first he was fledged, and I'm not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow.

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They were both so much moved that they cried aloud like eagles or vultures with crooked talons that have been robbed of their half fledged young by peasants.

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mon petit," cried the bowman, "you take me back to the days when you were new fledged, as sweet a little chick as ever pecked his way out of a monkish egg.

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Their many valleys are revealed by the changing hues of the light, or by the more or less clear outlines of the mountain ridges fledged with their dark forests of pines.

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If the animal prove a quadruped, Ishmael is a true man--if a biped, fledged or unfledged, I care not, he is false, and our compactum at an end!"

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The little singing-bird that never was fledged, was long kept in a cage by a guardian of your appointing, well enough known to our old intriguer here.

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This is our fourth year in a row and the most that have fledged in recent times.

Endangered breed has most successful hatch in a decade

Although number of young fledged is a common measure of number of young recruited into the population, survival of fledglings until dispersal may be a better measure of reproductive success for population models (Keedwell, 2003).

Survival and movements of fledgling western bluebirds

This year's success follows that of last year, when two Northumberland nests produced six young, and 2015, as eight birds fledged from two nests.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2017 Region playing part in future of species; three pairs of hen harriers make nests in northumberland