Definition of "waxwing" [wax•wing]

• Any of several birds of the genus Bombycilla, having crested heads, grayish-brown plumage, and waxy red tips on the wing feathers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name waxwing is due to the scarlet ornaments at the tips of the lesser flight feathers and some of the tail feathers, which resemble bits of red sealing wax, but which are really the bare, flattened ends of the feather shafts."
• "The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics."
• "Early AI researchers saw thinking as logical inference: if you know that birds can fly and are told that the waxwing is a bird, you can infer that waxwings can fly."