fly

CEFRA1

/ˈflaɪ̯/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
verb
To move through the air using wings or an aircraft.
02
noun
A small flying insect with two wings.

Examples

A fly was buzzing against the window.
When you're enjoying yourself, the time seems to fly by.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ˈflɑɪ̯/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
Those or any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.

noun

Extra meaning

Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.

More examples

In context

Some of the birds didn't fly.
Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.
It takes about eleven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Hong Kong.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The eagle can blank high above the mountains with its powerful wings.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.
2012 January 26, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 46
When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
October in Orania can be charming. When the sun sets, long ribbons of burnt orange settle on the horizon. The flies and mosquitoes that come with the oppressive summer heat haven’t arrived yet. It is Magdalene Kleynhans’ favourite time of year. “You can sit outside until late into the night,” says the businesswoman, whose family spend much of their time outdoors. Her children fish from the banks of the Orange River whenever they choose. Kleynhans leaves the house unlocked. “It’s a good life. It’s a big privilege.”
2019 October 24, Dennis Webster, “'An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2022
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.
1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152
to the fly of the compass, which before was made equal, I was still constrained to put some small piece of wire on the south part there
a. 1850, Robert Norman, (Please provide the book title or journal name)

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Origin

verb

From Middle English flye, flie, from Old English flȳġe, flēoge (“a fly”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleugā, from Proto-Germanic *fleugǭ (“a fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”). Cognate with Scots flee, Saterland Frisian Fljooge, Dutch vlieg, German Low German Fleeg, German Fliege, Danish flue, Norwegian Bokmål flue, Norwegian Nynorsk fluge, Swedish fluga, Icelandic fluga.

Deep Dive

verb

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

The eagle can blank— high above the mountains with its powerful wings.

Nearby

Origin

verb

The eagle can blank high above the mountains with its powerful wings.