Underwing

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A hind wing on an insect.
"The upper wings of the moth which Jacob held were undoubtedly marked with kidney-shaped spots of a fulvous hue. But there was no crescent upon the underwing."
2
moth having dull forewings and brightly colored hind wings wordnet
3
A member of the genus Catocala, a nocturnal moth which usually has brightly coloured underwings.
4
The underside of a bird's wing.
"The ‘white-tailed’ kites in the genus Elanus (‘kite’) are small, gull-like, grey-and-white hawks with black forewing patches and varying amounts of black on the underwings."

Example

"The upper wings of the moth which Jacob held were undoubtedly marked with kidney-shaped spots of a fulvous hue. But there was no crescent upon the underwing."

Etymology

From under + wing.

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