Meaning & use
wing collar
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Meaning
nouncountableformal
A stiff upright shirt collar with the front points folded down, worn with very formal evening or morning dress.
Grammar: Countable: say a wing collar, wing collars; it usually appears with a bow tie or a formal cravat.
Patterns
- wear a wing collar
- a wing-collar shirt
- with a wing collar
He wore a wing collar and a black bow tie to the awards dinner.
Wing collars look old-fashioned at most modern weddings, but they suit very formal dress codes.
The costume shop rents out wing-collar shirts for period dramas.
Word forms
| plural | wing collars |
|---|
Common combinations
- a stiff wing collar
- The butler appeared in a stiff wing collar and white gloves.
- a wing-collar shirt
- Only a wing-collar shirt fits properly under that style of jacket.
- wear a wing collar
- Grooms rarely wear a wing collar unless the invitation says white tie.
- with a wing collar
- He turned up with a wing collar and a velvet jacket.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stiff collar
- A general term for any rigid collar; it does not say that the points fold downward like a wing collar.
- dress collar
- Covers formal collars of several shapes, so it is less precise than wing collar.
Word family
- collar noun
- The part of a shirt that goes around the neck.
- wing-tip noun
- A shoe with a W-shaped toe pattern; shares the 'wing' idea but is a different item.
Commonly confused: wing collar or wingtip? wing collar or turtleneck?
wing collar vs wingtip
A wingtip is a style of shoe or the end of an aircraft wing, not a collar.
wing collar vs turtleneck
A turtleneck is a close-fitting rolled collar on a sweater; a wing collar is stiff and formal.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'wing collar' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A wing collar is a stiff formal shirt collar, so it belongs with white-tie dress. The other options describe warm clothing, an aircraft part, or a pet's neckband, which are different things.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wing collar”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.