Fly

Pronunciation

• enPR: flÄ«, IPA: /flaɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ

From Old English flȳġe, flēoge. Cognate with Scots flee, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege, Swedish fluga.

Noun

1. (zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies.
• 2012-01, Douglas Larson, Runaway Devils Lake, 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.
2. (non-technical) Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 5, 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.
3. Any similar, but unrelated insect such as dragonfly or butterfly.
4. (fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
5. (weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
6. (obsolete) A witch's familiar.
• Ben Jonsona trifling fly, none of your great familiars
7. (obsolete) A parasite.

Derived terms

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), from Proto-Indo-European *pleuk-, *pleu-k- (cf. Lithuanian plaũkti ‘to swim’), enlargement of *pleu- ‘flow’. More at flow.

Full definition of fly

Verb

1. (intransitive) To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
• G. K. ChestertonAngels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
• 2013-09-07, On a bright new wing, Flying using only the power of the sun is an enticing prospect. But manned solar-powered aircraft are fragile and slow, ….
2. Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.   The Concorde flew from Paris to New York faster than any other passenger airplane.   It takes about eleven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Hongkong.   The little fairy flew home on the back of her friend, the giant eagle.
3. (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).
• John DrydenSleep flies the wretch.
• William Shakespeareto fly the favours of so good a king
• William ShakespeareWhither shall I fly to escape their hands?
• John MiltonFly, ere evil intercept thy flight.
• J. R. R. TolkienHe staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. “Fly, you fools!” he cried, and was gone.
4. Fly, my lord! The enemy are upon us!
5. (transitive, ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
• W. S. GilbertThe brave black flag I fly.
• 2013-09-07, On a bright new wing, 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.
6. Charles Lindbergh flew his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic ocean.   Why don’t you go outside and fly kites, kids? The wind is just perfect.   Birds fly their prey to their nest to feed it to their young.   Each day the post flies thousands of letters around the globe.
7. (intransitive, colloquial, of a proposal, project or idea) To be accepted, come about or work out.
   Let's see if that idea flies.   You know, I just don't think that's going to fly. Why don't you spend your time on something better?
8. (intransitive) To travel very fast.
• John MiltonFly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race.
• BryantThe dark waves murmured as the ships flew on.
• 2011, September 18, Ben Dirs, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia, 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.
9. To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
   a door flies open;  a bomb flies apart
10. To hunt with a hawk.

Synonyms

• (travel through air) soar, hover, wing, skim, glide, ascend, rise, float, aviate
• (flee) escape, flee, abscond

Antonyms

• (travel through air) walk
• (flee) remain, stay

Derived terms

Related terms

• flight

Noun

1. (obsolete) The action of flying; flight.
2. An act of flying.
   We had a quick half-hour fly back into the city.
3. (baseball) A fly ball.
4. (historical) A type of small, fast carriage (sometimes pluralised flys).
• 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Folio Society 2008, p. 124:As we left the house in my fly, which had been waiting, Van Helsing said:— ‘Tonight I can sleep in peace ....’
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 16, “… She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”
5. A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
6. A strip of material hiding the zipper, buttons etc. at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.
7. The free edge of a flag.
8. The horizontal length of a flag.
9. Butterfly, a form of swimming.
10. (weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
11. The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
12. (nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
13. Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.
14. A heavy wheel, or cross arms with weights at the ends on a revolving axis, to regulate or equalize the motion of machinery by means of its inertia, where the power communicated, or the resistance to be overcome, is variable, as in the steam engine or the coining press. See fly wheel.
15. In a knitting machine, the piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
16. The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
17. (weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
18. (printing, historical) The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
19. (printing, historical) A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
20. One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive, baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).Jones flied to right in his last at-bat.

Origin uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.

Adjective

1. (slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).be assured, O man of sin—pilferer of small wares and petty larcener—that there is an eye within keenly glancing from some loophole contrived between accordions and tin breastplates that watches your every movement, and is "fly,"— to use a term peculiarly comprehensible to dishonest minds—to the slightest gesture of illegal conveyancing. (Charles Dickens, "Arcadia"; Household Words Vol.7 p.381)
2. (slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance.He's pretty fly for a white guy.
3. (slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.