Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to aviation: a flying time of three hours between cities.
- adj. Capable of or engaged in flight: The bat is a flying mammal.
- adj. Situated, extending, or functioning in the air: a flying deck.
- adj. Swiftly moving; fleet: played the difficult passage with flying fingers.
- adj. Done or performed swiftly in or as if in the air: crossed the goal line with a flying leap.
- adj. Brief; hurried: made a flying visit to the neighbors' house; took a flying glance at the report.
- adj. Capable of swift deployment or response; extremely mobile.
- adj. Nautical Not secured by spars or stays. Used of a sail.
- n. Flight in an aircraft or spacecraft.
- n. The piloting or navigation of an aircraft or spacecraft.
- idiom. with flying colors With complete or outstanding success: passed the Latin examination with flying colors.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of moving through the air on wings; flight.
- n. plural Loose or floating waste of any kind.
- Swift; equipped for swift motion: as, a flying party.
Wiktionary
- adj. That which can fly.
- adj. Brief or hurried.
- adj. nautical, of a sail Not secured by yards.
- v. present participle of fly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Moving in the air with, or as with, wings; moving lightly or rapidly; intended for rapid movement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an instance of traveling by air
- adj. hurried and brief
- adj. moving swiftly
Etymologies
- fly + -ing (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Mark Haisma doesn't like the term "flying winemaker.”
“He had heard of the term flying saucers, better known as Unidentified Flying Objects.”
“True courage consists not in flying from the storms of life; but in braving and steering through them with prudence.”
The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza Wharton: A Novel Founded on Fact
“The term flying is hardly too strong to express the speed of the elevators," claim the directors, and after a complicated series of calculations, they proudly conclude that the elevators annually make "the enormous journey of ... nearly five times around the earth.”
“And that was obviously hurting that man, Chris Benoit, as he's doing -- this is what he calls his flying head butt, which is just painful to watch now.”
“The use of the term “Islamicfasciam” and the other term flying around lately “Clash of Civilazations” are disturbing.”
Think Progress » Kondrake: Rice and Hughes Convince Bush To Drop ‘Islamic Fascism’ From Speeches
“The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
“In the old days people used to see what they called flying saucers.”
“That was the time they finally ... in '34, we had what they called the flying squadrons that came through.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flying’.
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)another, three, place, work, eyes, new, said, give, face, day, going, like and 388 more...
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In Dreams
falling, flying, taking a test, teeth falling out, being naked in pu..., being chased, driving, being late, getting lost, losing your voice..., speaking in a for..., tsnuamis and 40 more...
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You're a SUPER Hero!
List as many "super" powers as you can think of! Anything that would be called for example "super strength", please remove the first word and list only the second word Thanks!
flight, flying, hovering, strength, invisibility, intelligence, psychic, telekinesis, smell, touch, taste, hearing and 47 more...
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cindywrites's Words
chiaroscuro, mollycoddle, feckless, evocative, provocative, invocation, beckon, allay, becalm, console, lull, soothe and 479 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Bird Wirds: Adjectives
Adjectives used in actual (non-taxonomic) bird names, past and present.
roseate, glossy, whooping, neotropic, pelagic, ferruginous, crested, whiskered, marbled, tufted, horned, eared and 818 more...
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Now Boarding
airline, plane, aircraft, passenger, ticket, boarding pass, reservation, pilot, steward, stewardess, flight attendant, air hostess and 38 more...
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words that make me happy
christmas, kate, glitter, sparkle, ice, icicle, snow, polar, aurora borealis, northern lights, skylight, fairy lights and 71 more...
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Tunie: I Get a Kick Out of You
Like Poetrie (thanks, uselessness), only these are lyrics.
For my favorite Porterite. :-)
I Get a Kick Out of You
by Cole Porter
(from Anything Goes, 1934) <...sky, guy, flying, adore, clear, bore, sniff, cocaine, kick, thrill, champagne, fabulous and 6 more...
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Heroes
Powers revealed so far on the show Heroes
flying, radiation, clairvoyance, telekinesis, time travel, mimic, mimicking, strength, healing, suggestion, illusion, inhibitor and 5 more...
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Ozmopolitan Words
Words concerning anything Ozian...either from the original books or movie "The Wizard of Oz" or from the Broadway musical "Wicked."
galindafied, greenify, rejoicify, verdigris, swankified, emerald, liquification, ozian, oz, darlingest, momsie, popsical and 78 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flying.

bilby "Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous."
- Pilot's Crib Sheet. Feb 12, 2009