fledgling

noun, often attributive

fledg·ling | \ ˈflej-liŋ

How to pronounce fledgling (audio)

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Definition of fledgling

1 : a young bird just fledged (see fledge sense 1) a female bird feeding her fledglings

2 : an immature or inexperienced person fledgling medical students

3 : one that is new a fledgling company

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Examples of fledgling in a Sentence

a female bird feeding her fledglings at hockey he's still a fledgling and needs to work on his basic skating skills

Recent Examples on the Web Bates, a five-star forward committed to play Michigan State basketball, and Ball Boys will face another fledgling program, Legacy the School of Sports Science (Texas). — Tyler J. Davis, Detroit Free Press, "Emoni Bates, Ypsi Prep play at Houston arena in Holiday Hoopfest: How to watch," 13 Dec. 2020 That’s exactly what Smith, Miller and Ravare were hoping to provide with their fledgling organization. — Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, "Dominic Smith’s Baseball Generations offers diamond lifeline to disadvantaged L.A. youth," 9 Dec. 2020 In 2016, Henry Russell and a band of former Gilman assistant coaches went to St. Frances to rescue the fledgling program. — Glenn Graham, baltimoresun.com, "St. Frances football program’s winding journey to national prominence featured in HBO documentary," 7 Nov. 2020 Historically, independent restaurateurs like Nelson have operated, well, independently, but a fledgling organization is trying to help him and his peers get some relief. — Matt Goulding, The Atlantic, "Our Weird Restaurant Future," 19 June 2020 Hamilton pitched it to Don, the Gap co-founder who, with his wife, ended up investing some $100 million into the fledgling charter network. — Madeline Fry Schultz, Washington Examiner, "The activism that's killing youth education," 10 Dec. 2020 China's fledgling pharmaceutical industry has at least five vaccines from four producers being tested in more than a dozen countries including Russia, Egypt and Mexico. — Bloomberg.com, "China Prepares Large-Scale Rollout of COVID-19 Vaccines," 6 Dec. 2020 The move is intended to accelerate growth of the San Francisco startup’s fledgling network of physical stores, expand the product line and boost... — John D. Stoll, WSJ, "Sustainable Footwear Maker Allbirds Lands $100 Million in Funding," 27 Sep. 2020 Despite the family’s enormous wealth today, her father’s fledgling business of managing equity mutual funds had rough sledding in the early ’70s when the stock market crashed. — Cheryl Hall, Dallas News, "Fidelity’s Abby Johnson is rich, powerful — and largely unknown," 13 Dec. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fledgling.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

17 Jan 2021

Cite this Entry

“Fledgling.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fledgling. Accessed 20 Jan. 2021.

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