WordWeb Online

1. Travel through the air; be airborne
   "Man cannot fly";
   - wing
    
2. Move quickly or suddenly
   "He flew about the place"
    
3. (air travel) travel in an aeroplane
   "she is flying to Cincinnati tonight"; "Are we driving or flying?"
    
4. Travel over (an area of land or sea) in an aircraft
   "Lindbergh was the first to fly the Atlantic"
    
5. Operate an aeroplane
   "He flew the jet over Cuba";
   - aviate, pilot
    
6. Transport by aeroplane
   "We fly flowers from the Caribbean to North America"
    
7. Cause to fly or float
   "fly a kite"
    
8. Be dispersed or disseminated
   "Rumors and accusations are flying"
    
9. Change quickly from one emotional state to another
   "fly into a rage"
    
10. Pass away rapidly
    "Time flies like an arrow";
    - fell, vanish
     
11. Display in the air or cause to float
    "fly a kite"; "All nations fly their flags in front of the U.N."
     
12. Run away quickly
    - flee, take flight, cut and run [informal]
     
13. (baseball) hit a fly
     
14. Decrease rapidly and disappear
    "the money flew in las Vegas";
    - vanish, vaporize, vaporise [Brit]

1. Two-winged insects characterized by active flight
    
2. Flap consisting of a piece of canvas that can be drawn back to provide entrance to a tent
   - tent-fly, rainfly [N. Amer], fly sheet, tent flap
    
3. An opening in a garment that is closed by a zipper or by buttons concealed under a fold of cloth
   - fly front
    
4. (baseball) a hit that flies up in the air
   - fly ball
    
5. Fisherman's lure consisting of a fishhook decorated to look like an insect
    
6. [UK, archaic] A horse-drawn carriage
   "a fly at the door from the Kings Arms, and his step-daughter with all her little bags and boxes, getting into it"

1. [Brit, informal] Not to be deceived or hoodwinked
    
2. [N. Amer] Well dressed, smart in appearance

Derived forms: flyer, flies, flown, flying, flew, flyest

See also: alert, watchful

Type of: break away, bunk [informal], carry, change, control, decrease, diminish, dipteran, dipteron, dipterous insect, elapse, escape, fall, fish lure, fisherman's lure, flap, fly the coop [informal], glide by, go, go along, go by, head for the hills [informal], hightail it [N. Amer, informal], hit, hitting, journey, lam [N. Amer, informal], lapse, leg it [Brit, informal], lessen, locomote, move, opening, operate, pass, run, run away, scarper [Brit, informal], scat [informal], show, slide by, slip away, slip by, striking, take to the woods [informal], transport, travel, turn tail [informal], two-winged insects

Part of: Diptera, fly tent, garment, order Diptera

Encyclopedia: Fly, Ohio