Search Result for "bastard_wing":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. tuft of small stiff feathers on the first digit of a bird's wing;
[syn: bastard wing, alula, spurious wing]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Bastard \Bas"tard\, a. 1. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note. [1913 Webster] 2. Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so. [1913 Webster] That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices. --Barrow. [1913 Webster] 3. Of an unusual or irregular make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 4. (Print.) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book. [1913 Webster] Bastard ashlar (Arch.), stones for ashlar work, roughly squared at the quarry. Bastard file, a file intermediate between the coarsest and the second cut. Bastard type (Print.), type having the face of a larger or a smaller size than the body; e. g., a nonpareil face on a brevier body. Bastard wing (Zool.), three to five quill feathers on a small joint corresponding to the thumb in some mammalia; the alula. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

bastard wing n 1: tuft of small stiff feathers on the first digit of a bird's wing [syn: bastard wing, alula, spurious wing]