fly
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: flī
ipa: /flaɪ/
ipa: [flaɪ]
ipa: [flɑj]
ipa: [flaɪ]
ipa: [fləj]
ipa: [flɑɪ]
rhymes: -aɪ
Forms: form: flies
form: flying
form: flew
form: flown
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: fly
form: fly
form: flew
form: fly
form: fliest
form: flyest
form: flew
form: flewest
form: flies
form: flieth
form: flyeth
form: flew
form: fly
form: flew
form: fly
form: flew
form: fly
form: -
form: flying
form: flown
Etymology: From Middle English flien, from Old English flēogan, from Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (compare Saterland Frisian fljooge, Dutch vliegen, Low German flegen, German fliegen, Danish flyve, Norwegian Nynorsk flyga), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (*plew-k-, “to fly”) (compare Lithuanian plaũkti ‘to swim’), enlargement of *plew- (“flow”). More at flee and flow.
Senses: examples: text: Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.
text: The Concorde flew from Paris to New York faster than any other passenger airplane.
text: It takes about eleven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Hong Kong.
text: The little fairy flew home on the back of her friend, the giant eagle.
text: Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
ref: 1909, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Orthodoxy:
text: The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.
ref: 1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:
text: I want to reach out and touch the sky / I want to touch the sun, but I don't need to fly
ref: 1972, “Supernaut”, performed by Black Sabbath:
text: Flying using only the power of the sun is an enticing prospect. But manned solar-powered aircraft are fragile and slow, […].
ref: 2013 September 7, “On a bright new wing”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:
glosses: To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
examples: text: Fly, my lord! The enemy are upon us!
text: [V]pon a ſodaine, / As Falſtaffe, ſhe, and I, are newly met, / Let them [children dressed like "urchins, ouphes and fairies"] from forth a ſaw-pit ruſh at once / With ſome diffuſed ſong: Vpon their ſight / We two, in great amazedneſſe will flye: […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 56, column 1:
text: to fly the favours of so good a king
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: Fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Sleep flies the wretch.
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
text: And boyhood is a summer sun
Whose waning is the dreariest one —
For all we live to know is known
And all we seek to keep hath flown — […]
ref: 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
text: He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. “Fly, you fools!” he cried, and was gone.
ref: 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:
glosses: To flee, to escape (from).
examples: text: Charles Lindbergh flew his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic ocean.
text: Why don’t you go outside and fly kites, kids? The wind is just perfect.
text: Birds fly their prey to their nest to feed it to their young.
text: Each day the postal service flies thousands of letters around the globe.
text: The brave black flag I fly.
ref: 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC:
text: A solar-powered unmanned aerial system (a UAS, more commonly called a drone) could fly long, lonely missions that conventional aircraft would not be capable of.
ref: 2013 September 7, “On a bright new wing”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:
text: This area, referred to as the fly loft, should typically be two and a half times taller than the proscenium opening in order to fly the scenery above the vertical sightlines of the first row of the audience.
ref: 2015, Jeromy Hopgood, Dance Production: Design and Technology, page 44:
glosses: To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
examples: text: He flew down the hill on his bicycle.
text: It's five o'clock already. Doesn't time fly?
text: Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race.
ref: 1645, John Milton, On Time:
text: The dark waves murmured as the ship flew on.
ref: 1870, William Cullen Bryant (translator), The Iliad (originally by Homer)
text: After yet another missed penalty by Kvirikashvili from bang in front of the posts, England scored again, centre Tuilagi flying into the line and touching down under the bar.
ref: 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.
examples: text: a door flies open
text: a bomb flies apart
text: And in respect of the great necessity there is, my darling, for more employments being within the reach of Woman than our civilisation has as yet assigned to her, don’t fly at the unfortunate men, even those men who are at first sight in your way, as if they were the natural oppressors of your sex […]
ref: 1859 December 13, Charles Dickens, “The Mortals in the House”, in Charles Dickens, editor, The Haunted House. The Extra Christmas Number of All the Year Round […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 7, column 1:
text: I was upstairs, trying hastily to fix my face and unredden my eyes when I heard a car on the drive and flew to a window to make sure that it was David.
ref: 1976, J. P. Reading, chapter 15, in Tanya, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Book Services, →OCLC, page 174:
glosses: To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
examples: text: His career is really flying at the moment.
text: One moment the company was flying high, the next it was on its knees.
glosses: To proceed with great success.
examples: text: Let's see if that idea flies.
text: You know, I just don't think that's going to fly. Why don't you spend your time on something better?
qualifier: project or idea
glosses: To be accepted, come about or work out.
raw_tags: of a proposal
glosses: To display (a flag) on a flagpole.
examples: text: We'll fly the partridge, or go rouse the deer.
ref: c. 1590, Robert Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay:
glosses: To hunt with a hawk.
examples: text: This species flies from late summer until frost.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: To be in the winged adult stage.
raw_tags: of a type of moth or butterfly
Synonyms: sense: travel through air
word: soar
sense: travel through air
word: hover
sense: travel through air
word: wing
sense: travel through air
word: skim
sense: travel through air
word: glide
sense: travel through air
word: ascend
sense: travel through air
word: rise
sense: travel through air
word: float
sense: travel through air
word: aviate
sense: flee
word: escape
word: flee
word: abscond
sense: travel very fast
word: dart
word: flit
word: move quickly
sense: do an act suddenly
word: hurry
word: zoom
word: rush
Hyponyms: fly a kite
flying cone
fly into a rage
fly like a bird
fly like a rock
fly like the wind
fly off the handle
fly out the window
fly solo
overfly
Derived terms: afly
as the crow flies
as the gull flies
as the raven flies
backspot flying fish
befly
build the plane while flying it
could eat the arse out of a low flying duck
could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck
could eat the crutch from a low flying duck
don't drive faster than your guardian angel can fly
fill and fly
flag-flying
flyable
fly a desk
fly and flop
fly apart
fly at
flyaway
flyback
fly baker
flybar
fly blind
fly bomb
flyboy
flybridge
fly by
flyby
fly-by-light
fly-by-night
fly-by-nighter
fly by the seat of one's pants
fly-by-wire
flycatch
flycatching
flycraft
flycrank
flyer
flyey
fly high
fly-in
fly in
fly-in fly-out
flying ace
flying army
flying bishop
flying bomb
flying brick
flying bridge
flying camp
flying car
flying carp
flying carpet
flying cat
flying circus
flying coffin
flying colors
flying colours
flying disc
flying disc golf
flying doctor
flying dragon
flying fig
flying freehold
flying frog
flying fuck
flying ginny
flying gurnard
flying handkerchief
flying helmet
flying jenny
flying jib
flying jib boom
flying kiss
flying knee
flying lap
flying lemur
flying machine
flying mare
flying meet
flying monkeys
flying mouse
flying ointment
flying party
flying phalanger
flying picket
flying purple people eater
flying purple people-eater
flying rat
flying rod
flying rowan
flying saucer group
flying school
flying shot
flying sport
flying stationer
flying toilet
flying wedge
flying white
flying wing
fly in the face of
fly into
fly low
flyoff
fly off
fly off the shelves
fly out
flyout
fly out of the blocks
fly out of the traps
fly-over
flyover
fly-past
flypast
fly-pitch
fly-pitcher
flypost
fly-poster
fly-posting
fly the blue pigeon
fly the coop
fly the flag
fly the freak flag
fly the kite
fly the nest
fly-through
flythrough
fly-tip
fly-tipper
fly-tipping
fly too close to the sun
fly-under
flyunder
fly under the radar
fly up
fly upon
flyway
flywheel
fly with leaden wings
fly without a licence
flyworthy
free-fly
fur-flying
give a flying fuck
go fly a kite
high-flying
if pigs had wings they would fly
in flying colors
in flying colours
Japanese flying squid
keep the flag flying
kiss and fly
kite flying
let fly
make the dust fly
make the feathers fly
make the fur fly
Malabar flying frog
Malaysian flying lemur
monkeys might fly out of my butt
non-flying
outfly
overfly
Philippine flying lemur
pigs can fly
pigs may fly
pigs might fly
refly
Siberian flying squirrel
sparks fly
speed flying
straighten up and fly right
Sunda flying lemur
take a flying fuck at a rolling donut
take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut
take a flying leap
test-fly
the feathers fly
the fur flies
time flies
time flies when you're having fun
unidentified flying object
upfly
watch the feathers fly
watch the fur fly
when pigs can fly
when pigs fly
with flying colors
with flying colours
yogic flying
Related terms: fly agaric
flight