What does "fledge" mean?

To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.

What is a synonym for "fledge"?

Common synonyms include: attain majority, bloom, come of age, come to maturity, develop, feather.

Fledge

//flɛd͡ʒ// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight. transitive
2
grow feathers wordnet
3
To grow, cover or be covered with feathers. intransitive
4
decorate with feathers wordnet
5
To decorate with feathers. transitive

Show 2 more definitions

6
feed, care for, and rear young birds for flight wordnet
7
To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect. intransitive

Adjective

1
Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly. archaic, not-comparable
"his shoulders, fledge with wings"

Synonyms

All synonyms

attain majority bloom come of age come to maturity develop feather

Example

More examples

"The hornbill nestlings are ready to fledge."

Etymology

From Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, from Old English *flyċġe (“able to fly, fledged”) (attested in *unflyċġe, unfligge (“unfledged”)), from Proto-West Germanic *flugi, from Proto-Germanic *flugjaz (“able to fly, fledged”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to run, flow, be swift, flee, fly”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: Dutch vlug (“fledged, able to fly, nimble, swift”), Low German flügg (“fledged”), German flügge, German flücke (“fledged”), Icelandic fleygur (“able to fly, fledged”)

Related phrases

full-fledged

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.