fly

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.

2012 January 27, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 46:

en:true fly, any insect of order Diptera

(zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.

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.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

en:any insect of family Muscidae, nontechnical usage

(non-technical) Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).

en:any flying insect, nontechnical usage

Any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.

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.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152:

(fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.

(weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)

(swimming) The butterfly stroke (plural is normally flys).

a trifling fly, none of your great familiars

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):

The fly that plays too near the flame burns in it.

1636, Philip Massinger, “The Bashful Lover”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, published 1845, act 1, scene 1, page 470:

(preceded by definite article) A simple dance in which the hands are shaken in the air, popular in the 1960s.

(finance) A butterfly (combination of four options).

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

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.


fly

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 Hong Kong.

The little fairy flew home on the back of her friend, the giant eagle.

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.

1909, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Orthodoxy:

I want to reach out and touch the sky / I want to touch the sun, but I don't need to fly

1972, “Supernaut”, performed by Black Sabbath:

Flying using only the power of the sun is an enticing prospect. But manned solar-powered aircraft are fragile and slow, […].

2013 September 7, “On a bright new wing”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852:

(intransitive) To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.

Fly, my lord! The enemy are upon us!

[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: […]

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:

to fly the favours of so good a king

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]:

Fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.

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:

Sleep flies the wretch.

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:

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 — […]

1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. “Fly, you fools!” he cried, and was gone.

1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:

(ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).

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 postal service flies thousands of letters around the globe.

The brave black flag I fly.

1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC:

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.

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.

2015, Jeromy Hopgood, Dance Production: Design and Technology, page 44:

(transitive, ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.

He flew down the hill on his bicycle.

It's five o'clock already. Doesn't time fly?

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race.

The dark waves murmured as the ship flew on.

1870, William Cullen Bryant (translator), The Iliad (originally by Homer)

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.

2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

(intransitive) To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.

a door flies open

a bomb flies apart

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 […]

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:

(intransitive) To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.

His career is really flying at the moment.

One moment the company was flying high, the next it was on its knees.

(intransitive) To proceed with great success.

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?

(intransitive, colloquial, of a proposal, project or idea) To be accepted, come about or work out.

(transitive, ergative) To display (a flag) on a flagpole.

We'll fly the partridge, or go rouse the deer.

c. 1590, Robert Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay:

This species flies from late summer until frost.

(intransitive, entomology, of a type of moth or butterfly) To be in the winged adult stage.

en-verb

fly (third-person singular simple present flies, present participle flying, simple past flew, past participle flown)

flies (present singular third-person)
flying (participle present)
flew (past)
flown (participle past)
fly (infinitive)

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

take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut

пуска́ть (puskátʹ) (something light such as a kite; literally: to let go)

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.


fly

(obsolete) The action of flying; flight.

There was a good wind, so I decided to give the kite a fly.

(American football) Short for fly route.

A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.

[T]he main part of the operation of pitching the tent, consisting of raising the flies, may be performed, and shelter afforded, without the walls, &c., being present.

1810, Thomas H. Williamson, The East India Vade-Mecum, page 452:

The cavalcade drew up in line, / Pitch'd the marquee, and went to dine. / The bearers and the servants lie / Under the shelter of the fly.

1816, The Grand Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi, page 152:

After I had changed my riding-habit for my one other gown, I came out to join the general under the tent-fly.

1885, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Boots and Saddles:

(India, obsolete) The sloping or roof part of the canvas of a tent.

Ha-ha! Your fly's undone!

February 2014 Y-Front Fly
Y-Front is a registered trademark for a special front fly turned upside down to form a Y owned by Jockey® International. The first Y-Front® brief was created by Jockey® more than 70 years ago.

June 2014 The Hole In Men’s Underwear: Name And Purpose
Briefs were given an opening in the front. The point of this opening (the ‘fly’) was to make it easier to pee with clothes on

(often plural) A strip of material (sometimes hiding zippers or buttons) at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.

(vexillology)
The horizontal length of a flag.

(weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.

The part of a weather vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.

to the fly of the compass, which before was made equal, I was still constrained to put some small piece of wire on the south part there

a. 1850, Robert Norman, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.

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.

A fly carried him rapidly to Lady Clavering’s house from the station […]

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 74, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Can I get a fly, or a carriage of any kind? Is it too late?
I dismissed the fly a mile distant from the park, and getting my directions from the driver, proceeded by myself to the house.

1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:

A glass coach, it may be as well to observe, is a carriage and pair hired by the day, and a fly a one-horse carriage hired in a similar manner.

1861, Henry Mayhew, William Tuckniss, London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopœdia of the Condition and Earnings of Those that Will Work, Those that Cannot Work, and Those that Will Not Work, volume 3, page 359:

As we left the house in my fly, which had been waiting, Van Helsing said:— ‘Tonight I can sleep in peace [...].’

1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

“[…] 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.”

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

And, driving back in the fly, Macmaster said to himself that you couldn't call Mrs. Duchemin ordinary, at least.

1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 54:

Then we read at New Southgate and Colney Hatch, that "Cabs are on stand at station from 9 a.m. to departure of last down train. Private omnibuses, flys and other conveniences can be had at short notice on application to Messrs. Walker & Son." At country stations we are often told, "a fly may be obtained on application to Mrs. Brown of the Black Dog," or some other cheery information.

1941 December, “Notes and News: Timetable features of the Past”, in Railway Magazine, page 570:

Chepstow is good for excursions, and Bradshaw tells me I can get a fly to Tintern Abbey, although the fare structure seems particularly complicated. Alternatively, I could go for a simpler choice and just opt for "single horse, 1s", although I doubt I'd survive to tell the tale.

2023 February 22, Stephen Roberts, “Reading... between the lines... to Wales”, in RAIL, number 977, page 59:

(historical) A type of small, light, fast horse-drawn carriage that can be hired for transportation (sometimes pluralised flys).

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

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.

The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.

(weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.

The person who took the printed sheets from the press.

A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.

It was as if I been idling on a brightly lit stage-set of a country garden, ripe with every sort of pastoral fancy, and then had turned a flat and come on the stagehands and the wings, the propped sets, the men working in the flies—all the dark mechanics that produced the pretty picture the audience saw.

2006, Alistair Cooke, The American Home Front, 1941-1942, page 128:

One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.

gylf

piece of canvas that covers the opening of a tent

дюкян

strip that hides the opening of trousers/pants or underpants

From Middle English flye (“flying, flight”), from Old English flyge (“flying, flight”), from Proto-Germanic *flugiz.


fly

Jones flied to right in his last at-bat.

(intransitive, baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).

en-verb

fly (third-person singular simple present flies, present participle flying, simple past and past participle flied)

flies (present singular third-person)
flying (participle present)
flied (participle past)
flied (past)


fly

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.

1854, Charles Dickens, “Household Words”, in Arcadia, volume 7, page 381:

(slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp.

He's pretty fly.

when Ortega got fixed up in his fly duds like that, an ord'nary man's overcoat wouldn't make 'im a pair o' socks.

1888, Frederick Thickstun Clark, A Mexican Girl, page 270:

Give it to me, baby! Uh huh, uh huh! And all the girlies say, I’m pretty fly for a white guy.

1998, “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”performed by The Offspring:

Starring the light-skinned Ron O'Neal with his shoulder-length perm and fly threads, Super Fly exudes a sense of black pride as O'Neal bucks the dope game, dismisses his white girlfriend, and beats The Man at his own hustle.

2001 September 27, “Super Fly”, in Vibe, volume 9, number 9, page 252:

A fly sister rolled in with a suitcase full of hip-hop novels called The Glamorous Life, and an African brother with long dreads wanted to sell them some incense and some fake Jacob watches.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 169:

How NOT to Facebook / […] no naked pictures, no deep emotions (awkward), no tagging a bunch of people in a picture of some fly Nikes, no making dinner plans (just use a PHONE).

2012, Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, How to Be a Person: The Stranger's Guide to College, Sex, Intoxicants, Tacos, and Life Itself:

Harry [Styles] and Grimmy had struck up quite a friendship with Rita [Ora] and a few weeks earlier had been seen at G-A-Y for her album launch. She tweeted a picture of the trio saying: ‘Thanks for coming my little fashionistas. Looking flyer than a mofo.’

2013, Louisa Jepson, “‘At the moment it appears I have, like 7000 girlfriends’”, in Harry Styles: Every Piece of Me, London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, published 2014, →ISBN, page 209:

I'm so fly, I don't even try / I get so high, I can touch the sky / Dress for myself, I don't dress for hype / I dress for myself, you dress for the likes

2019, “Balenciaga”, performed by Princess Nokia:

(slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance; in style, cool.

[Rahiem] My name brings peace and tranquility / So all the fly ladies' hearts can run free

1979, “We Rap More Mellow”, performed by The Younger Generation:

Word is bond she looked divine, she looked as fly as can be
I thought she was different cause she was by herself
She looked real wholesome, and in good physical health

1991, “Busy Doin Nuthin”, in I Need a Haircut, performed by Biz Markie:

I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners

1994, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:

(slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.

en-adj

fly (comparative flier or flyer, superlative fliest or flyest)

flier (comparative)
flyer (comparative)
fliest (superlative)
flyest (superlative)

Uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.


fly

The bullet barely grazed the wild fowl's fly.

(rustic, Scotland, Northern England) A wing.

Related to German Flügel (“a wing”), Dutch vleugel (“a wing”), Swedish flygel (“a wing”).


fly

June 8, 1708, John Cock and William Nottingham desire 100 acres each [...] Isaac Davis desied a conveyance for the "greenbush" fly or swamp that he hath drained near his land, in the Jaagh Creupel-bosh.

1880, Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, History of Ulster County, New York: With Illustrations and..., page 185:

[…] one certain Lot of the Long fly, or swamp situate lying and being [in] the Township of Flatlands […] recorded June 15, 1876, Liber 1244 of Conveyances, at page 494, Kings County. The "East Division" was the Long Vly, […]

1924, Frederick Van Wyck, Keskachauge: Or the First White Settlement on Long Island, page 321:

[…] to a white maple stake standing in a fly or swamp , thence N [...] to a Hemlock Stake, […]

1961, William Gideon Closson, The Josiah Closson Family of New England, page 110:

Alternative form of vly (“swamp (in New York)”).