"let fly" meaning in English

See let fly in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-let fly.ogg [Australia] Forms: lets fly [present, singular, third-person], letting fly [participle, present], let fly [participle, past], let fly [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|let<,,let> fly}} let fly (third-person singular simple present lets fly, present participle letting fly, simple past and past participle let fly)
  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To strike or release a projectile with great force. Tags: idiomatic, intransitive
    Sense id: en-let_fly-en-verb-UA5LrEeD Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 58 42
  2. (figurative) To unleash an angry outburst. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-let_fly-en-verb-v4VRvlr-

Download JSON data for let fly meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lets fly",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "letting fly",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let fly",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let fly",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "let<,,let> fly"
      },
      "expansion": "let fly (third-person singular simple present lets fly, present participle letting fly, simple past and past participle let fly)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "58 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Norwich were back on level terms through an equally stunning finish by Morison in the 53rd minute, the former Millwall player letting fly from the edge of the area after being teed-up by Leon Barnett.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To strike or release a projectile with great force."
      ],
      "id": "en-let_fly-en-verb-UA5LrEeD",
      "links": [
        [
          "strike",
          "strike"
        ],
        [
          "release",
          "release"
        ],
        [
          "projectile",
          "projectile"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, intransitive) To strike or release a projectile with great force."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 498",
          "text": "Rosemary peeled off Sloane Square, Hartnell, decorations-will-be-worn, fog primroses, crumpets by the fire, and let fly vulgarly at Vythilingam.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984 August 11, Merle Woo, “Revolutionary Optimism—The Order of the Day”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 5, page 5",
          "text": "Jammed onto a narrow, steep sidewalk, police barricades all around, we march with placards, drums, and angry spirit: \"The Moral Majority, cops and Klan. Work together hand in hand.\" — helmeted tac squad on horses, Hondas, facing us on Powell Street, itching to wield their billy clubs, waiting for any excuse to let fly.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "She was furious and let fly at him with a string of obscenities."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To unleash an angry outburst."
      ],
      "id": "en-let_fly-en-verb-v4VRvlr-",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) To unleash an angry outburst."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-let fly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6b/En-au-let_fly.ogg/En-au-let_fly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/En-au-let_fly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "let fly"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lets fly",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "letting fly",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let fly",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let fly",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "let<,,let> fly"
      },
      "expansion": "let fly (third-person singular simple present lets fly, present participle letting fly, simple past and past participle let fly)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport",
          "text": "Norwich were back on level terms through an equally stunning finish by Morison in the 53rd minute, the former Millwall player letting fly from the edge of the area after being teed-up by Leon Barnett.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To strike or release a projectile with great force."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "strike",
          "strike"
        ],
        [
          "release",
          "release"
        ],
        [
          "projectile",
          "projectile"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, intransitive) To strike or release a projectile with great force."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 498",
          "text": "Rosemary peeled off Sloane Square, Hartnell, decorations-will-be-worn, fog primroses, crumpets by the fire, and let fly vulgarly at Vythilingam.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984 August 11, Merle Woo, “Revolutionary Optimism—The Order of the Day”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 5, page 5",
          "text": "Jammed onto a narrow, steep sidewalk, police barricades all around, we march with placards, drums, and angry spirit: \"The Moral Majority, cops and Klan. Work together hand in hand.\" — helmeted tac squad on horses, Hondas, facing us on Powell Street, itching to wield their billy clubs, waiting for any excuse to let fly.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "She was furious and let fly at him with a string of obscenities."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To unleash an angry outburst."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) To unleash an angry outburst."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-let fly.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6b/En-au-let_fly.ogg/En-au-let_fly.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/En-au-let_fly.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "let fly"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.