# flight
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: flīt, IPA: /flaɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English flight, from Old English flyht (“flight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti (“flight”), derived from *fleuganą (“to fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”), enlargement of *plew- (“flow”). Analyzable as fly +‎ -t (variant of -th).
Cognate with West Frisian flecht (“flight”), Dutch vlucht (“flight”), German Flucht (“flight”) (etymology 2).

#### Noun

flight (countable and uncountable, plural flights)
* The act of flying.
    Most birds are capable of flight.
* An instance of flying.
    The migrating birds' flight took them to Africa.
* (collective) A collective term for doves or swallows.
    a flight of swallows
* A trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.
    The flight to Paris leaves at 7 o'clock tonight.
    Where is the departure gate for flight 747? / Go straight down and to the right.
* A series of stairs between landings.
** 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84:She crept up the stairs [...] On she went, across the landing, from which sprang the tall window, and up the next flight until she reached the top.
* A group of canal locks with a short distance between them
* A floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.
    How many flights is it up?
* The feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 164:Baſſ. In my ſchoole dayes, when I had loſt one ſhaft / I ſhot his fellow of the ſelfeſame flight / The ſelfeſame way, with more aduiſed watch / To finde the other forth, and by aduenturing both, / I oft found both. I vrge this child-hoode proofe, […]
* A paper airplane. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
* (cricket) The movement of a spinning ball through the air, with its speed, trajectory and drift.
* The ballistic trajectory of an arrow or other projectile.
* An aerodynamic surface designed to guide such a projectile's trajectory.
* An air force unit.
* (US, naval) A numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
* Several sample glasses of a specific wine varietal or other beverage. The pours are smaller than a full glass and the flight will generally include three to five different samples.
* (by extension) A comparable sample of beers or other drinks.
* (engineering) The shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
* An episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.
    a flight of fancy; a flight of the imagination
* (advertising, broadcasting) An advertising campaign of fixed length.
** 2006, Pat Fallon, Fred Senn, Juicing the Orange (page 34)
    After the first eight-week flight of advertising, the tracking research showed that consumers' predisposition to use Citi as a financial services provider jumped 50 percent.

##### Hyponyms

* controlled flight into terrain
* dark flight
* direct flight
* maiden flight
* red-eye flight
* space flight
* spaceflight
* test flight

##### Derived terms

* aflight
* autoflight
* beer flight
* black flight
* bus-stop flight
* co-flight
* controlled flight into terrain
* death flight
* fight-or-flight
* fight or flight
* first flight
* first flight cover
* flight attendant
* flight bubble
* flight capital
* flightcase
* flight ceiling
* flight code
* flight control
* flight controller
* flightcraft
* flight crew
* flight data recorder (FDR)
* flight deck
* flight director
* flight engineer
* flight envelope
* flight feather
* flightful
* flightiness
* flight information region
* flight instrument
* flight interruption manifest
* flight jacket
* flightless
* flight level
* flight lieutenant
* flight line
* flightling
* flightmare
* flight mode
* flight number
* flight nurse
* flight of beer
* flight of beers
* flight of earls
* flight of fancy
* flight path
* flight plan
* flight recorder
* flight risk
* flightseeing
* flight sequence
* flight-shot
* flight sock
* flightsome
* flight-specific
* flight square
* flight status
* flight suit
* flight ticket
* flight time
* flightworthy
* flighty
* foreflight
* ghost flight
* hydroflight
* in-flight
* in flight
* inflight
* Lévy flight
* life-flight
* male flight
* midflight
* moonflight
* multiflight
* nonflight
* outflight
* overflight
* paraflight
* Pindaric flight
* postflight
* preflight
* reflight
* spaceflight
* stairflight
* take flight
* time-of-flight
* time of flight
* time-of-flight mass spectrometry
* top-flight
* top flight
* topflight
* white flight
* wine flight

##### Related terms

* fly

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Adjective

flight (comparative more flight, superlative most flight)
* (obsolete) Fast, swift, fleet.

#### Verb

flight (third-person singular simple present flights, present participle flighting, simple past and past participle flighted)
* (cricket, of a spin bowler) To throw the ball in such a way that it has more airtime and more spin than usual.
* (sports, by extension, transitive) To throw or kick something so as to send it flying with more loft or airtime than usual.
** 2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian‎:Riyad Mahrez flighted the free-kick that followed to the far post and Morgan, with not much finesse but plenty of desire, bundled the ball over the line. Cue pandemonium in the stands.

#### See also

Appendix:English collective nouns

### Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Old English flyht, from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti, derived from *fleuhaną (“to flee”). Analyzable as flee +‎ -t (variant of -th). Cognate with Dutch vlucht, German Flucht (etymology 1).

#### Noun

flight (countable and uncountable, plural flights)
* The act of fleeing.
    take flight
    the flight of a refugee
** 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night, Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.
** 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.

##### Derived terms

* black flight
* capital flight
* fight-or-flight
* white flight

##### Related terms

* flee

##### Translations
## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* flyght

### Etymology

Inherited from Old English flyht.

### Noun

flight (plural flights)
* flight (act of flying)

#### Descendants

* English: flight
* Scots: flycht, flicht

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from English flight. Attested since 1967.

### Noun

flight c
* a flight ((regular) trip made by a passenger aircraft)

#### See also

* flygning

### References

* flight in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* flight in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)