fly

1. (intransitive) To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.Examples: "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."Synonyms: soar, hover, wing, skim, glide, ascend, rise, floatintransitive

2. (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).Examples: "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: […]"; "to fly the favours of so good a king"Synonyms: escapeambitransitivearchaicpoetic

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

4. (intransitive) To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.Examples: "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."Synonyms: dartintransitive

5. (intransitive) To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.Examples: "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 […]"Synonyms: hurryintransitive

6. (intransitive) To proceed with great success.Examples: "His career is really flying at the moment."; "One moment the company was flying high, the next it was on its knees."intransitive

1. (obsolete) The action of flying; flight.obsolete

2. (baseball) A fly ball.

3. (American football) Ellipsis of fly route.abbreviationalt-ofellipsis

4. (India, obsolete) The sloping or roof part of the canvas of a tent.Examples: "[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."; "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."; "After I had changed my riding-habit for my one other gown, I came out to join the general under the tent-fly."Indiaobsolete

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

6. (vexillology)

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).Examples: "Jones flied to right in his last at-bat."intransitive

1. (slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp.Examples: "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."datedslang

2. (slang) Clandestine, surreptitiousExamples: "Some say God was an alien that tampered with our DNA, the 3 kings followed ufos & Mary had a fly shag 🤔🤫"slang

3. (slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance; in style, cool.Examples: "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."; "Give it to me, baby! Uh huh, uh huh! And all the girlies say, I’m pretty fly for a white guy."slang

4. (slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.Examples: "[Rahiem] My name brings peace and tranquility / So all the fly ladies' hearts can run free"; "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"; "I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners"slang

1. (rustic, Scotland, Northern England) A wing.Examples: "The bullet barely grazed the wild fowl's fly."Northern-EnglandScotland