fly

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To engage in flight, especially:
2. v. To move through the air by means of wings or winglike parts.
3. v. To travel by air: We flew to Dallas.
4. v. To operate an aircraft or spacecraft.
5. v. To rise in or be carried through the air by the wind: a kite flying above the playground.
6. v. To float or flap in the air: pennants flying from the masthead.
7. v. To move or be sent through the air with great speed: bullets flying in every direction; a plate that flew from my hands when I stumbled.
8. v. To move with great speed; rush or dart: The children flew down the hall. Rumors were flying during their absence.
9. v. To flee; escape.
10. v. To hasten; spring: flew to her students' defense.
11. v. To pass by swiftly: a vacation flying by; youth that is soon flown.
12. v. To be dissipated; vanish: Their small inheritance was quickly flown.
13. v. Baseball To hit a fly ball.
14. v. To undergo an explosive reaction; burst: The dropped plate flew into pieces. The motorist flew into a rage.
15. v. Informal To gain acceptance or approval; go over: "However sophisticated the reasoning, this particular notion may not fly” ( New York Times).
16. v. To cause to fly or float in the air: fly a kite; fly a flag.
17. v. Nautical To operate under (a particular flag): a tanker that flies the Liberian flag.
18. v. To pilot (an aircraft or a spacecraft).
19. v. To carry or transport in an aircraft or a spacecraft: fly emergency supplies to a stricken area.
20. v. To pass over or through in flight: flew the coastal route in record time.
21. v. To perform in a spacecraft or an aircraft: flew six missions into space.
22. v. To flee or run from: fly a place in panic.
23. v. To avoid; shun: fly temptation.
24. n. The act of flying; flight.
25. n. A fold of cloth that covers a fastening of a garment, especially one on the front of trousers.
26. n. The fastening or opening covered by such a fold.
27. n. A flap that covers an entrance or forms a rooflike extension for a tent or the canopy of a vehicle.
28. n. A flyleaf.
29. n. Baseball A fly ball.
30. n. The span of a flag from the staff to the outer edge.
31. n. The outer edge of a flag.
32. n. A flywheel.
33. n. The area directly over the stage of a theater, containing overhead lights, drop curtains, and equipment for raising and lowering sets.
34. n. Chiefly British A one-horse carriage, especially one for hire.
35. fly at To attack fiercely; assault: The dogs flew at each other's throats.
36. idiom. fly high To be elated: They were flying high after their first child was born.
37. idiom. fly off the handle Informal To become suddenly enraged: flew off the handle when the train was finally canceled.
38. idiom. let fly To shoot, hurl, or release: The troops let fly a volley of gunfire.
39. idiom. let fly To lash out; assault: The mayor let fly with an angry attack on her critics.
40. idiom. on the fly On the run; in a hurry: took lunch on the fly.
41. idiom. on the fly While in the air; in flight: caught the ball on the fly.
42. n. Any of numerous two-winged insects of the order Diptera, especially any of the family Muscidae, which includes the housefly.
43. n. Any of various other flying insects, such as the caddis fly.
44. n. A fishing lure simulating a fly, made by attaching materials such as feathers, tinsel, and colored thread to a fishhook.
45. idiom. fly in the ointment A detrimental circumstance or detail; a drawback.
46. adj. Chiefly British Mentally alert; sharp.
47. adj. Slang Fashionable; stylish.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To move through the air by the aid of wings, as birds.
2. To pass or move in air by the force of wind or any other impulse: as, clouds fly before the wind; a ball flies from a cannon, an arrow from a bow; the explosion made the gravel fly.
3. To rise, spring, shoot, or be cast in air, as smoke, sparks, or other light objects.
4. To move or pass with swiftness or alacrity; go rapidly or at full speed; rush; dart: as, to fly to the relief of a distressed friend; the ship flies before the wind; recriminations flew about.
5. To depart suddenly or swiftly; take flight; escape; flee: as, the rogue has flown; his fortune will soon fly.
6. To part suddenly or with violence; burst or be rent into fragments or shreds: as, the bottle flew into a thousand pieces; the sail flew in tatters.
7. To flutter; wave or play, as a flag in the wind.
8. To be evanescent; fade; disappear: said of colors: as, that color is sure to fly when the fabric is washed.
9. To hunt with a falcon; hawk.
10. To resist; set at defiance; oppose with violence; act in direct opposition to.
11. To revolt.
12. To evaporate or volatilize.
13. To break out in anger, uproar, or license.
14. To assail; abuse.
15. Nautical, to let go suddenly: as, let fly the sheets.
16. To cause to move through or float in the air: as, to fly carrier-pigeons; to fly a flag or a kite.
17. To attack by the flight of a falcon or hawk; fly at.
18. To flee from; shun; avoid as by flight; get away from: as, to fly the sight of one we hate.
19. n. The act of flying, or passing through the air; flight.
20. n. A state of flying: in the phrase on the fly (which see, below).
21. n. Something having a rapid or flying motion, or some relation to such motion. In mech.: An arrangement of vanes on a revolving axis to regulate the motion of clockwork by the impact of the vanes against the air; a fanner: now chiefly used in musical boxes and the striking parts of clock-machinery. Some contrivance for regulating the motion of machinery, as a fly-wheel, or cross-arms loaded at the ends with heavy weights, and placed at right angles to the axis of a windlass, jack, or the like. See fly-wheel. Also called fly-governor.
22. n. plural In a theater, the large space above the proscenium, extending over the whole of the stage, and including the borders, border-lights, many ropes, cleats, and pulleys, the beams to which these are attached, and the fly-galleries on either side from which the borders and drop-scenes are handled.
23. n. A piece of canvas drawn over the ridge-pole of a tent, doubling the thickness of the roof, but not in contact with it except at the ridge-pole.
24. n. The flap or door of a tent.
25. n. A strip of material sewed to a garment, but differing from a flounce in being drawn straight without gathering, and usually serving some purpose other than mere ornament. Thus, in some coats the buttonholes are inserted in a fly, so that the buttons do not show when the coat is buttoned; sometimes the fly is sewed on beneath the buttonholes.
26. n. In cotton-spinning, waste cotton.
27. n. The hinged board which covers the keys of a piano or an organ when not in use
28. n. In popular language, a flying insect of any common kind.
29. n. In entomology, a two-winged insect; any one of the order Diptera, and especially of the family Muscidæ: commonly used with a qualifying or specific term: as, the house-fly, Musca domestica. See the compounded words.
30. n. A fish-hook dressed with silk, tinsel, feathers, or other material, so as to resemble a fly or other insect, and used by anglers to entice fish.
31. n. A familiar spirit: apparently a cant term with those who pretended to deal in magic and similar impostures.
32. n. Figuratively, an insignificant thing; a thing of no value.
33. n. Pl. flys (flīz). A kind of quick-running carriage; a light vehicle for passengers; a hackney-coach.
34. n. An ephemerid; a shad-fly, May-fly, or day-fly. (See also cabbage-fly, forest-fly, hand-fly, radish-fly, robber-fly, saw-fly, stretcher-fly, etc.)
35. To convey in a fly.
36. To travel by a fly.
37. Knowing; wide-awake; quick to take one's meaning or intention: as, a fly young man.
38. n. See vly.
39. n. Nautical, an old-fashioned name for the compass-card.

Wiktionary

1. n. zoology Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies.
2. n. non-technical Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
3. n. Any similar, but unrelated insect such as dragonfly or butterfly.
4. n. fishing A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
5. n. weightlifting A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
6. v. intransitive To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
7. v. intransitive (archaic) (poetic) To flee, to escape.
8. v. transitive, ergative To cause to fly (travel by air or the like): to transport via air or the like.
9. v. intransitive (colloquial, of a proposal, project or idea) To be accepted, come about or work out.
10. v. intransitive To travel very fast.
11. n. obsolete The action of flying; flight.
12. n. An act of flying.
13. n. baseball A fly ball.
14. n. historical A type of small, fast carriage.
15. n. A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
16. n. A strip of material hiding the zipper, buttons etc. at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, or underpants.
17. n. The free edge of a flag.
18. n. The horizontal length of a flag.
19. n. butterfly a form of swimming
20. n. weightlifting Exercises that evolve wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders
21. v. intransitive, baseball To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
22. adj. slang, dated Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).
23. adj. slang Well dressed, smart in appearance.
24. adj. slang Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To move in or pass through the air with wings, as a bird.
2. v. To move through the air or before the wind; esp., to pass or be driven rapidly through the air by any impulse.
3. v. To float, wave, or rise in the air, as sparks or a flag.
4. v. To move or pass swiftly; to hasten away; to circulate rapidly
5. v. To run from danger; to attempt to escape; to flee. See Note under Flee.
6. v. To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly; -- usually with a qualifying word
7. v. To cause to fly or to float in the air, as a bird, a kite, a flag, etc.
8. v. To fly or flee from; to shun; to avoid.
9. v. obsolete To hunt with a hawk.
10. v. To manage (an aircraft) in flight.
11. n. Any winged insect; esp., one with transparent wings.
12. n. Any dipterous insect; See diptera, and Illust. in Append.
13. n. A hook dressed in imitation of a fly, -- used for fishing.
14. n. obsolete A familiar spirit; a witch's attendant.
15. n. obsolete A parasite.
16. n. engraving A kind of light carriage for rapid transit, plying for hire and usually drawn by one horse.
17. n. The length of an extended flag from its staff; sometimes, the length from the “union” to the extreme end.
18. n. The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
19. n. (Naut.) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
20. n. 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.
21. n. 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 (below).
22. n. (Knitting Machine) The piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
23. n. The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
24. n. (Weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
25. n. Formerly, the person who took the printed sheets from the press.
26. n. A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power to a power printing press for doing the same work.
27. n. The outer canvas of a tent with double top, usually drawn over the ridgepole, but so extended as to touch the roof of the tent at no other place.
28. n. One of the upper screens of a stage in a theater.
29. n. The fore flap of a bootee; also, a lap on trousers, overcoats, etc., to conceal a row of buttons.
30. n. (Baseball) A batted ball that flies to a considerable distance, usually high in the air; also, the flight of a ball so struck. Also called fly ball.
31. n. (Cotton Manuf.) Waste cotton.
32. adj. Slang Knowing; wide awake; fully understanding another's meaning.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an opening in a garment that is closed by a zipper or by buttons concealed under a fold of cloth
2. v. move quickly or suddenly
3. n. (baseball) a hit that flies up in the air
4. v. cause to fly or float
5. v. travel over (an area of land or sea) in an aircraft
6. v. operate an airplane
7. v. be dispersed or disseminated
8. v. pass away rapidly
9. n. fisherman's lure consisting of a fishhook decorated to look like an insect
10. v. travel in an airplane
11. v. hit a fly
12. v. transport by aeroplane
13. adj. (British informal) not to be deceived or hoodwinked
14. v. display in the air or cause to float
15. v. run away quickly
16. n. two-winged insects characterized by active flight
17. v. change quickly from one emotional state to another
18. v. travel through the air; be airborne
19. v. decrease rapidly and disappear
20. n. flap consisting of a piece of canvas that can be drawn back to provide entrance to a tent