Definition of "fledge"

fledge

/flɛd͡ʒ/

verb
third-person singular simple present fledges, present participle fledging, simple past and past participle fledged
1. (transitive) To care for a young bird until it is capable of flight.
2. (intransitive) To grow, cover or be covered with feathers.
3. (transitive) To decorate with feathers.
4. (intransitive) To complete the last moult and become a winged adult insect.
adjective
not comparable
1. (archaic) Feathered; furnished with feathers or wings; able to fly.
  Quotations
  his shoulders, fledge with wings
  1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,