flightless

Adjective

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

   Synonyms: nonflying nonvolant apterous wingless

   Antonyms: flying volant

   Coordinate Terms: flighted unflighted

   1. (usually) Describing kinds of birds that normally cannot fly, such as the penguin, ostrich, and emu.

   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. (uncommon, humorous) 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!