1) The wings of large birds were used as brushes.
1371 Et in wengges emptis, 4d York. In 1642, Henry Best wrote: the man is to stande ready with a winge in his hande and ever as hee taketh out a combe hee is to ... winge of the bees, Elmswell .
2) The embankments that adjoined bridge abutments were often reinforced and fronted with a stone wall. These wings or wing walls are referred to from the seventeenth century.
1684 Rampiers and wings, Conistone
1702 to make a wing or weare of hewen stone, Skirden. In the latter case the dimensions were given: one wing wall att the East end of the said bridge twelve yards long and two yards high, with a frame under the said wing wall.