Dictionary

sunwing en · NOUN

Etymology

From sun + wing.

Meanings

1. (rare) A solar greenhouse, sun porch or solarium added as an extension to a building, in order to provide a space that captures heat from sunlight.
   • Many of the hard-earned lessons of the solar home industry are being brought to bear on sunwing design. 1990, James Lawrence, The Harrowsmith Country Life Reader, page 58:
   • The common-wall opening was left uncovered, but the chill from the sunwing during cold nights was so noticeable that we decided to install pocket doors and insulate the remainder of the wall. Foss thus created a buffered sunwing, an addition outside the thermal envelope of the house. 1985, Merilyn Mohr, Sunwings, page 18:
2. A wing or extension designed to capture energy from sunlight.
   • Slowly, on parallel tracks into the breeze, the sunwings rolled off. 2011, Poul Anderson, Orion Shall Rise:
   • While we still had the giant sunwings we traveled the world, exploring other continents from the air. 2003, Sean Mcmullen, Eyes of the Calculor:
3. (poetic, rare) A ray of sunlight.
   • A boy awakening under a plane-tree Whose bark peels every grade of green, With sunwings winking in-between? 1984, Francis Scarfe, Grounds for Conceit, page 8:
   • A thousand random fragrances of morn Float from lush solitudes and leafy dells, While summer's sunwings rest on lake and tree. 1910, William Dowsing, Sheffield Vignettes: A Series of Sonnets, page 3:

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