flightless

adj — 3 senses

flightless

adj

Etymology From flight + -less.

› Unable to fly.

1

Usually Describing kinds of birds that normally cannot fly, such as the penguin, ostrich, and emu.

Near-synonyms: apterous, wingless
The indigenous fauna of Australia and New Zealand featured an especially interesting array of flightless birds.

1 more example

America has its bald eagle and New Zealand has its kiwi, a flightless brown bird.2010, Alexander Elder, Straying from the Flock: Travels in New Zealand:

2

Uncommon Describing an individual bird that normally would be able to fly but in this case cannot, such as an injured sparrow.

The animal shelter has a flightless sparrow named Shiny, who seems to make up for his disability by being an avid runner.

3

Humorous, Uncommon Suddenly deprived of a scheduled (airline) flight by its cancellation.

Oh great, some wind is blowing in Chicago, so now I'm flightless in Seattle, because this airline can't cope!

Derived terms: flightless cormorant, flightlessly, flightlessness, New Guinea flightless rail, semiflightless
Related terms: unflightworthy, unflyable, unflying, featherless

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.