non-flyingadj.
/nɒnˈflʌɪɪŋ/, U.S. /nɑnˈflaɪɪŋ/ 1. Of an animal, esp. a bird: flightless.
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the world > animals > birds > flight > [adjective] > unable to fly
non-flying1851
flightless1875
1851 Sci. Amer. 26 Apr. 251/2 The gigantic fossil birds of New Zealand, which were wingless, or non-flying.
1871 Amer. Naturalist 4 751 An exclusively walking or swimming bird (a non-flying bird), with a largely developed sternal crest would be an anomaly in nature.
1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) vi. 145 In non-flying, ostrich-like birds, in which smooth feathers are unnecessary for wing surfaces or streamlining of the body, there is little development of such hooks.
1991 Discover Dec. 12/1 Koehl and Emerson systematically interchanged the various body parts, giving models with the pose of a nonflying frog the webbed feet of a flier, for example.
2. Of a person, esp. one connected with an air force or the aviation industry: that does not fly an aircraft. Also: that does not travel in an aircraft.
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1918 B. Hall Diary 22 Jan. in B. Hall & J. J. Niles One Man's War (1929) xxxii. 289 Visited the Avenue Montaigne Headquarters. It is full of non-flying aviators. The American pilots call them Kiwis.
1941 N. Macmillan Air Strategy 53 Safeguarding the health and efficiency of the non-flying personnel.
1995 Daily Tel. 8 Mar. 19/6 He loved to pull the legs of ‘fishhead’ (non-flying) officers.
2002 Wall St. Jrnl. (Electronic ed.) 5 July New rules from the Transportation Security Administration say nonflying club members now need a ‘declared business reason’ to get to the clubs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1851