earn (one's) wings

To prove one's merit and skill. I never thought much of Stu, but he really earned his wings this week with how well he handled the merger.

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ernie	['ɜ:ni]
Cutler	['kʌtlə]
Aada	AH:-dah	Finnish
Tatjana	TAHT-yah-nah (Finnish)	Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish
Paulinho	-	Portuguese
&Aelig;Thelthryth	-	Anglo-Saxon