fledge

verb

ˈflej 

fledged; fledging

intransitive verb

of a young bird : to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity

also : to leave the nest after acquiring such feathers

transitive verb

1

: to rear until ready for flight or independent activity

2

: to cover with or as if with feathers or down

3

: to furnish (something) with feathers

fledge an arrow

Examples of fledge in a Sentence

The young birds haven't yet fledged.

Recent Examples on the Web

Equally concerning was the high concentrations of pesticides in each nest – even months after breeding season had ended and the surviving chicks had fledged. —Grrlscientist, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025

The fledging partnership between Oracle, SoftBank Corp. and OpenAI, co-founded by Elon Musk, envisions leveraging AI in part to improve health outcomes. —Stephanie Armour | Kff Health News, ABC News, 8 Mar. 2025

The ratings are in for the first week of Beyond the Gates, and so far so good for the fledging soap on CBS: the daytime drama that’s the first to premiere since Passions in 1999 grew to 2.28 million viewers in L+3, up 78 percent from The Talk last year. —Lynette Rice, Deadline, 6 Mar. 2025

Three of them fledged, but the others didn’t survive a major storm. —Francine Kiefer, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

fledge capable of flying, from Middle English flegge, from Old English -flycge; akin to Old High German flucki capable of flying, Old English flēogan to fly — more at fly

First Known Use

1566, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Rhymes for fledge

• dredge
• edge
• hedge
• ledge
• pledge
• sedge
• sledge
• wedge
• allege
• straightedge

Kids Definition

fledge

verb

ˈflej 

fledged; fledging

1

: to develop the feathers necessary for flying

also : to leave the nest after developing such feathers

2

: to provide with feathers

fledge an arrow