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Fly

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fly¹

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *plew-

Proto-Indo-European *plewk-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi

Proto-Germanic *fleuganądeverb.

Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ

Proto-West Germanic *fleugā

Old English flēoge

Middle English flye

English fly

From Middle English fflye, flehe, flei, fleie, fley, fleye, fleȝe, flie, fliȝe, flye, vliȝe, vlye, from Old English flēge, flēoge, flīeġe (“a fly”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleugā, from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ (“a fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to flow, fly, run; to splash”), enlargement of *plew- (“to flow, fly, run”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots flee, flei (“fly”), North Frisian fleeg (“fly”), Saterland Frisian Fljooge (“fly”), Alemannic German Flüüge (“fly”), Cimbrian blòiga, vlòiga (“fly”), Dutch vlieg (“fly”), German Fliege (“fly”), Low German Fleeg (“fly”), Vilamovian fłig, fłyjǵ (“fly”), Yiddish פֿליג (flig, “fly”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål flue (“fly”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish fluga (“fly”), Norwegian Nynorsk fluga, fluge, fluggu, flugu (“fly”).

noun flies

  1. Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies. 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. Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges). 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. Those or any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.
  4. A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect. 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.
  5. A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
  6. The butterfly stroke (plural is normally flys).
  7. obsolete A witch's familiar. a trifling fly, none of your great familiars
  8. obsolete A parasite. The fly that plays too near the flame burns in it.
  9. A simple dance in which the hands are shaken in the air, popular in the 1960s.
  10. A butterfly (combination of four options).

fly²

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *plew-

Proto-Indo-European *plewk-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi

Proto-Germanic *fleuganą

Proto-West Germanic *fleugan

Old English flēogan

Middle English fliender.

English fly

From Middle English flei, fley, fleye, fleȝhenn, flien, fliȝe, flyen, flyyn, from Old English flēgan, flēogan, from Proto-West Germanic *fleugan, from Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to flow, fly, run; to splash”), enlargement of *plew- (“to flow, fly, run”). Compare Etymology 1.

Cognates

Cognate with Scots flei (“to fly”), Yola vlee (“to fly”), North Frisian fli, fliin, fliine, fliinj, flä, fläie, flö (“to fly”), Saterland Frisian fljoge, fljooge (“to fly”), West Frisian fleane (“to fly”), Central Franconian fleeje (“to fly”), Dutch vliegen (“to fly”), Low German flegen (“to fly”), German fliegen (“to fly”), Luxembourgish fléien (“to fly”), Vilamovian fłig (“to fly”), Yiddish פֿליִען (flien, “to fly”), Danish flyve (“to fly”), Faroese fljúgva, flúgva (“to fly”), Icelandic fljúga (“to fly”), Norwegian Bokmål fly, flyge, flyve (“to fly”), Norwegian Nynorsk fljuga, fly, flyga, flyge (“to fly”), Scanian flyğa (“to fly”), Swedish flyga (“to fly”); also Cornish lew (“rudder”), Old Irish luí (“rudder”), Welsh llyw (“rudder”), Latin pluit, pluō (“to rain”), Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō, “to sail; to float”), Lithuanian plaukti (“to swim; to float”), Bulgarian пля́скам (pljáskam, “to slap; to clap; to splash; to jabber; to blemish”), Czech pleskat (“to slap; to flap, lap”), Macedonian плеска (pleska, “to slap”), Russian плеска́ть (pleskátʹ, “to splash”), Serbo-Croatian пље̏скати, pljȅskati (“to applaud; to slap”), Ukrainian плеска́ти (pleskáty, “to splash”), Armenian լուանալ (luanal), լվալ (lval), լվանալ (lvanal, “to wash”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B plu- (“to fly”), Sanskrit प्लु (plu, “to float; to sail”). More at flee and flow.

verb flies · flying · flew · flown · fly

  1. intransitive To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface. Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.
  2. intransitive To take a flight on a plane; to pilot or crew a plane. My airline needs me to get clearance before I can fly again.
  3. intransitive To be in the winged adult stage. This species flies from late summer until frost.
  4. colloquial, figuratively, intransitive To be accepted, come about or work out. Let's see if that idea flies.
  5. transitive To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like. Charles Lindbergh flew his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic ocean.
  6. transitive To arrange for someone to take a flight. We flew the kids out to see their grandparents.
  7. transitive To pilot a plane over a region or on a route. This is the first time I flew the Pacific.
  8. transitive To complete (a goal, task, mission, etc.) while crewing an aircraft or spacecraft. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is departing the agency on Wednesday after 30 years of service. Throughout his career, he flew four missions, spent 549 days in space, and completed nine spacewalks in support of the International Space Station.
  9. transitive To hunt with a hawk. We'll fly the partridge, or go rouse the deer.
  10. ergative To wave or flutter; to cause to wave or flutter. When the wind picked up, her hair flew back behind her head.
  11. ergative To operate a kite (A lightweight toy or other device... carried on the wind and tethered and controlled from the ground by one or more lines). Why don’t you go outside and fly kites, kids? The wind is just perfect.
  12. ergative To display (a flag) on a flagpole; to be displayed on a flagpole. We flew the state flag under the national flag.
  13. ergative, figuratively, transitive To proudly and openly make one's allegiances or viewpoint apparent. She's really letting the freak flag fly.
  14. ergative, figuratively To symbolically rule over or control. The French flag flew over Louisiana until 1803.
  15. intransitive To drain away or be expended quickly. The family fortune flew in a few short years.
  16. dated, intransitive To vanish; to fade away. The mist flew by noon.
  17. figuratively, intransitive To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten. He flew down the hill on his bicycle.
  18. figuratively, intransitive To move suddenly, or with violence; to carry out an act suddenly or swiftly. a door flies open
  19. figuratively, intransitive To proceed with great success. His career is really flying at the moment.
  20. archaic, figuratively, intransitive, literary, transitive To avoid or shun. I must fly the temptation of drink.
  21. ambitransitive, archaic, figuratively, intransitive, poetic To flee, to escape (from). My bird flew the cage.

fly³

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

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

noun flys · flies

  1. obsolete The action of flying; flight.
  2. An act of flying. There was a good wind, so I decided to give the kite a fly.
  3. A fly ball.
  4. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of fly route.fly route
  5. A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
  6. India, obsolete The sloping or roof part of the canvas 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.
  7. A strip of material (sometimes hiding zippers or buttons) at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc. Ha-ha! Your fly's undone!
  8. The moving portion of an extendable ladder.
  9. The free edge of a flag.
  10. The horizontal length of a flag.
  11. An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
  12. The part of a weather vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
  13. That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card. 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
  14. 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.
  15. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of flywheel.flywheel
  16. historical A type of small, light, fast horse-drawn carriage that can be hired for transportation (sometimes pluralised flys). A fly carried him rapidly to Lady Clavering’s house from the station […]
  17. 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.
  18. The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
  19. A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
  20. historical The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
  21. historical A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
  22. One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre. 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
  23. Waste cotton.

fly⁴

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

verb flies · flying · flied · flyed

  1. intransitive 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.

fly⁵

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

Uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.

adjective flier · flyer · fliest · flyest

  1. dated, slang Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp. 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 slig
  2. slang Clandestine, surreptitious Some say God was an alien that tampered with our DNA, the 3 kings followed ufos & Mary had a fly shag 🤔🤫
  3. slang Well dressed, smart in appearance; in style, cool. He's pretty fly.
  4. slang Beautiful; displaying physical beauty. [Rahiem] My name brings peace and tranquility / So all the fly ladies' hearts can run free

fly⁶

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

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

noun flies

  1. Northern England, Scotland A wing. The bullet barely grazed the wild fowl's fly.

fly⁷

  • /flaɪ/
  • [ˈflaɪ̯]
  • [ˈflɑ̟ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflɒ̈ɪ̯] Australia
  • [ˈflaː]

Rhymes with -aɪ

noun flies

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

Fly⁸

Where it comes from

The Fly was first discovered by Europeans in 1845 when Francis Blackwood, commanding the corvette HMS Fly, surveyed the western coast of the Gulf of Papua. The river was named after his ship and he proclaimed that it would be possible for a small steam-powered boat to travel up the mighty river.

proper noun

  1. A river in Papua New Guinea

Fly⁹

proper noun Flys

  1. A surname.

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