fly
Forms
- Plural
- flies
- present (v1)
- fly
- past (v2)
- flew
- past participle (v3)
- flown
- present participle
- flying
- 3rd person singular
- flies
Definitions
1.Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
- He is afraid to fly in an airplane.
- I want you to fly to Boston tomorrow.
- It took Jane twenty hours to fly to Japan.
2.Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
- He is afraid to fly in an airplane.
- I want you to fly to Boston tomorrow.
- It took Jane twenty hours to fly to Japan.
3.Those or any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.
- He is afraid to fly in an airplane.
- I want you to fly to Boston tomorrow.
- It took Jane twenty hours to fly to Japan.
4.A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
- I went on trying for fish along the western bank down the river, but only small trout rose at my flies, and a score was the total catch.
1.To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
- Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
- It takes about eleven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Hong Kong.
- Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.
2.To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.
- He flew down the hill on his bicycle.
- It's five o'clock already. Doesn't time fly?
- The dark waves murmured as the ship flew on.
3.To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
- I was upstairs, trying hastily to fix my face and unredden my eyes when I heard a car on the drive and flew to a window to make sure that it was David.
4.To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
- Birds fly their prey to their nest to feed it to their young.
- Why don’t you go outside and fly kites, kids? The wind is just perfect.
- Each day the postal service flies thousands of letters around the globe.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1083
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Etymology
From Middle English fflye, flehe, flei, fleie, fley, fleye, fleȝe, flie, fliȝe, flye, vliȝe, vlye, from Old English flēge, flēoge, flīeġe (“a fly”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleugā, from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ (“a fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to flow, fly, run; to splash”), enlargement of *plew- (“to flow, fly, run”).