fly

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“
The buzz of a fly was audible now and again, as it flew round the little oil-cup

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Definitions (180)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (47)

  1. intransitive verb To engage in flight, especially:
  2. intransitive verb To move through the air by means of wings or winglike parts.
  3. intransitive verb To travel by air: We flew to Dallas.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (109)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • I pushed on and stood glaring unseeing at a pillar covered in Chinese fly-posters, the only static thing in the shambling din. —  Jade Woman - Jonathan Gash - Lovejoy 12
  • The reason you can't swat a fly is that, for a creature with a brain hardly deserving of the name, the fly is a marvel of calculating ability. —  Sore Eyes
  • And uploading videos youtube on the fly is a good addition. —  Esato discussion forum
  • Fishless Days, Angling Nights by Sparse Gray Hackle that introduced a legend in American fly-fishing by the name of —  MSDN Blogs
  • If just combining things on the fly is a bit scary, or if you're unsure as to how these things might go together, try Googling them together and see what you get. —  Firedoglake
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

insect ·  bird ·  spider ·  fish ·  snake ·  worm ·  bug ·  beetle ·  giant ·  butterfly ·  moth ·  frog

Used in the same contextWord Family

fly:   flied ·  flew ·  flying ·  flown ·  flies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English flien, from Old English flēogan; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English flie, from Old English flēoge; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.
  3. Probably from fly1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. Early modern English also flie, flye; from Middle English flyen, flien, fliʒen, fleyen, fleʒen, fleen, fleon, flon, fleoʒen, etc. (preterit fleʒ, fleh, flæh, flah, flaʒ, fley, fleiy, fleyghe, fligh, flew, fluwe, etc., plural fluʒen, flogen, flowen, fluwen, flow, etc.), fly, from Anglo-Saxon fleógan, fliógan (preterit fleág, fleáh, plural flugon, past participle flogen), fly, rarely (by confusion with fleón) flee, = OFries. fliaga, NFries. flega = Dutch vliegen = Middle Low German vlēgen, Low German flegen = Old High German fliogan, Middle High German vliegen, German fliegen = Icelandic fljūga = Norwegian fljuga = Swedish flyga = Danish flyve, fly, = Gothic (Moesogothic) *fliugan, inferred from derived factitive flaugjan in comp. us-flaugjan, drive about, literally cause to fly about, as the wind does light substances. The common Teutonic root is *flug, the word being quite different from flee, Anglo-Saxon fleón, etc., Gothic (Moesogothic) thliuhan, Teutonic √ *thluh, with which, however, it has been partly confused from the Anglo-Saxon period: see flee. Hence fly, n., fly, fledge = flidge = flish, flush = fly, and flay = Scots fley, fleg.
  2. In def. 1, from Middle English flye, from Anglo-Saxon flyge, flight, from fleógan (past participle flogen), fly; in other senses from the modern verb: see fly, v.
  3. Early modern English also flie, flye; from Middle English flye, flie, flee, fle, fley, flei, flege, fleoge, etc., from Anglo-Saxon fleóge, a fly (Latin musca), = Dutch vlieg = Middle Low German vlēge, Low German flege = Old High German flioga, Middle High German vliege, German fliege, also (with umlaut) Old High German fliuga, Middle High German fliuge, German fleuge = (with short vowel) Icelandic fluga = Swedish fluga = Danish flue, a fly; from fleógan, English fly: see fly, v.
  4. from fly, n., 6.
  5. Early modern English also flee; another form of fledge, flidge, flish, flush, etc., through dial. flig, from Middle English fligge, flygge, able to fly, fledged (hence able to shift for oneself, knowing); ult. from fly, v.: see fledge and flush.
 

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