fly
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: flī
ipa: /flaɪ/
ipa: [flaɪ]
ipa: [flɑj]
ipa: [flaɪ]
ipa: [fləj]
ipa: [flɑɪ]
rhymes: -aɪ
Forms: form: flies
Etymology: From Middle English flye, flie, from Old English flȳġe, flēoge (“a fly”), from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ (“a fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”). Cognate with Scots flee, Saterland Frisian Fljooge, Dutch vlieg, German Low German Fleeg, German Fliege, Danish flue, Norwegian Bokmål flue, Norwegian Nynorsk fluge, Swedish fluga, Icelandic fluga.
Senses: examples: text: Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.
ref: 2012 January 23, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 46:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
examples: text: When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
qualifier: non-technical
glosses: Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
glosses: Any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.
examples: text: I went on trying for fish along the western bank down the river, but only small trout rose at my flies, and a score was the total catch.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
weightlifting
glosses: A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
swimming
glosses: The butterfly stroke (plural is normally flys).
examples: text: a trifling fly, none of your great familiars
ref: 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: A witch's familiar.
examples: text: The fly that plays too near the flame burns in it.
ref: 1636, Philip Massinger, “The Bashful Lover”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, published 1845, act 1, scene 1, page 470:
glosses: A parasite.
qualifier: preceded by definite article
glosses: A simple dance in which the hands are shaken in the air, popular in the 1960s.
topics: business
finance
glosses: A butterfly (combination of four options).
Hyponyms: barfly
blackfly
blowfly
blue-banded eggfly
botfly
butterfly
cabbage root fly
caddis fly
cranefly
damselfly
dragonfly
drain fly
firefly
fruit fly
gadfly
grape fly
greenfly
horn fly
horsefly
housefly
hoverfly
march fly
mayfly
moth fly
phorid fly
pomace fly
reverse fly
sandfly
sand fly
sawfly
tachina fly
vinegar fly
warble fly
whitefly
wine fly
Derived terms: a closed mouth catches no flies
adder fly
alderfly
alkali fly
and no flies
antifly
apple fly
assassin fly
awl-fly
banana fly
bar fly
bat fly
bee fly
beetfly
Bill Gates' flower fly
black fly
blind-fly
blister fly
blow fly
blue fly
bobfly
bot fly
bottlefly
break a fly on a wheel
break a fly on the wheel
break a fly upon a wheel
break a fly upon the wheel
breezefly
brine fly
Brues' soldier fly
bull-fly
burrel fly
bush fly
cabbage fly
canker fly
carrot fly
carrot rust fly
catchfly
cheese fly
cluster fly
coffin fly
crane fly
dance fly
dayfly
dead fly biscuit
deerfly
deer fly
deer fly fever
die like flies
dobsonfly
dogfly
dolphin fly
drink with the flies
dry fly
dungfly
eggfly
eye fly
face fly
fairyfly
fire-fly
fishfly
flesh-fly
flesh fly
fleshfly
flower-fly
flower fly
fly agaric
fly amanita
fly ash
fly-ass
flybane
fly belt
fly biscuit
fly-bitten
flyblow
flyblown
fly-blown
fly-boat
flyboat
fly-bombed
flybook
fly box
fly-box
fly-boy
flycatcher
fly-catcher
flyfish
fly-fish
flyfisher
flyfisherman
fly-fishing
fly fishing
flyflap
flyflapper
fly fungus
fly grazing
fly-grazing
fly in the buttermilk
fly in the ointment
fly killer
flyleaf
flyless
fly line
flyloft
flymaker
flymph
flynet
fly on the wall
fly orchid
flypaper
fly paper
fly-paper
fly-papered
fly powder
flyproof
fly rail
flyrobin
fly rod
flyrod
fly-rod
flyscreen
fly screen
flysheet
fly-sheet
fly sheet
fly slip
flyspeck
fly spray
flystrike
flystruck
flyswat
fly swat
fly swatter
flyswatter
flytime
flytrap
flyweight
flywhisk
flywire
forest fly
freeloader fly
frit fly
froth-fly
fruitfly
garbage fly
glow fly
gout fly
green bottle fly
griffinfly
harm a fly
harvest fly
hawk-fly
hawthorn fly
Hessian fly
hippo fly
honey catches more flies than vinegar
honeymoon fly
hop fly
hornet fly
horse bot fly
horse-fly
horse fly
hover-fly
hurt a fly
ichneumon fly
lady-fly
lake fly
lanternfly
lanthorn-fly
leaf-miner fly
like a blue-arsed fly
like flies on a rib roast
like flies on pie
long-legged fly
lord of the flies
louse fly
mango fly
mantidfly
mantisfly
March fly
meat fly
Mediterranean fruit fly
mistfly
muck fly
Mydas fly
Nairobi fly
night fly
no flies on
noon fly
olive fly
olive fruit fly
onion fly
orl fly
owlfly
oxfly
palmfly
Paul Allen's flower fly
penis fly trap
petroleum fly
phantom crane fly
picture-winged fly
potato fly
rail fly
robber fly
robberfly
root fly
rust fly
sac fly
sacrifice fly
scorpionfly
scuttle fly
sedge fly
sewer fly
shadfly
shoo-fly pie
shoofly pie
shoo-fly plant
shoot fly
shore fly
smother-fly
snakefly
snipe fly
snow fly
soldier fly
Spanish fly
spider fly
squashed fly biscuit
stable fly
stalk-eyed fly
stiletto fly
St. Mark's fly
stonefly
sugarcane soldier fly
superfly
syrphus fly
timber fly
tsetse fly
tumbu fly
turnip fly
urfly
Venus fly trap
wet fly
whame fly
wheat fly
willow fly
window fly
wouldn't harm a fly
wouldn't hurt a fly
you attract more flies with honey than vinegar
you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar
you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
you catch more flies with honey than vinegar
you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar