fly Definition - English Dictionary | fly Explanations and Pronunciations

(zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
1. 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.

(non-technical) 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.

(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).

OBS A witch's familiar.

OBS A parasite.

OBS The action of flying; flight.

An act of flying.

We had a quick half-hour fly back into the city. ‎

(baseball) A fly ball.

(now historical) A type of small, fast carriage (sometimes pluralised flys).

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

A strip of material hiding the zipper, buttons etc. at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.

The free edge of a flag.

The horizontal length of a flag.

Butterfly, a form of swimming.

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

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

(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 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.

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.

(printing, historical) The person who took the printed sheets from the press.

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

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

(cotton manufacture) waste cotton.

VerbSGfliesPRflyingPT, PPfliedPTflewPPflown

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

VT VI (archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).

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

VI COL (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? ‎

VI To travel very fast.

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

a door flies open;  a bomb flies apart ‎

To hunt with a hawk.

VT To display a flag on a flagpole.

VI (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.

AdjectiveCOMflierSUPfliest

SLA (dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp.
1. 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)

SLA Well dressed, smart in appearance.

He's pretty fly.

SLA Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.

More Examples

Used in the Middle of Sentence
- The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya.
- "Liberty Bell March" is the theme song to "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
- “Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”
Used in the Beginning of Sentence
- Fly ball to deep center. Shelby goes back and makes the catch on the warning track.
Used in the Ending of Sentence
- 2009 October 19, Paul Rees, “Flying backs become walking wounded as blitz defence has its impact”, The Guardian: Imagine souping up a Mini with a Cosworth engine: the car would fly.
- You'd better close your mouth; are you trying to catch flies?
- Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.

fly meaning

Definition of fly in English Dictionary

Meaning of fly for the defined word.