Many birds and insects with wings … Fly-catcher "bird which eats insects on the wing" is from 1670s. There are many kinds of flies, and the most common are black in color. Definition of let fly in the Idioms Dictionary. This Slang page is designed to explain what the meaning of flyboy is. More example sentences. New Oxford American Dictionary Slang use in 1990s might be a revival or a reinvention. International Interest Also see international interest. From Middle English flien, from Old English flēogan, from Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (compare Saterland Frisian fljooge, Dutch vliegen, Low German flegen, German fliegen, Danish flyve, Norwegian Nynorsk flyga), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (*plew-k-, “to fly”) (compare Lithuanian plaũkti ‘to swim’), enlar… Fly Means. What does fly mean? slang, "clever, alert, wide awake," by 1811, perhaps from fly (n.) on the notion of the insect being hard to catch. View synonyms. There is still debate about how Polari originated but its origins can be traced back to at least the 19th century and has multiple origins and routes of dissemination with researchers finding a relatively small base of less than two dozen common (universal words) supplemented by regional phrases. Source(s): https://shrinks.im/a8k79. Fly definition is - to move in or pass through the air with wings. He’s the Gum Shoe Man, and he always gets his man.” It seems as though, back in the early 1900’s, “being fly” was a term that meant something like being clever, astute, observant, not easily fooled. 1.1 A toxic preparation of the dried bodies of Spanish fly beetles, formerly used in medicine as a counterirritant and sometimes taken as an aphrodisiac. In reference to flags, 1650s. If your wondering about the meaning of poppin' my collar, it means I'm clean. Dear Word Detective: In 1902, two Tin Pan Alley songwriters, Vincent Bryan and Harry Von Tilzer, wrote a song titled, “You Couldn’t Hardly Notice It At All.” The first two lines are, “A maid came in from Olean, she was a little shy, but you couldn’t hardly notice it at all. Since “fledge” is rooted in “fly” itself, we’re still in the ballpark with the verb “to fly” with that theory. The adjective “fly” first appeared in slang with this sense of “sharp” or “in the know” in the early 19th century (“The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about,” 1811); later in the century it also came to mean “dexterous, nimble” (“We’ll knap a fogle with fingers fly,” 1839). 4 (in southern Africa) an area that is infested with the tsetse fly. (of an aircraft or its occupants) travel through the air. fly (adj.) We deeply appreciate the erudition and energy of our commenters. ‘When an airplane is flying, it has a good deal of forward speed and airflow over all of its surfaces.’. change quickly from one emotional state to another, travel over (an area of land or sea) in an aircraft, two-winged insects characterized by active flight, flap consisting of a piece of canvas that can be drawn back to provide entrance to a tent, an opening in a garment that is closed by a zipper or by buttons concealed under a fold of cloth, (baseball) a hit that flies up in the air, fisherman's lure consisting of a fishhook decorated to look like an insect, (British informal) not to be deceived or hoodwinked. Plural flien (as in oxen, etc.) Where did the term “fly” in this context come about?
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