flying

That flies or can fly.

Adjective

  1. That flies or can fly.
    • flying fox
    • a flying rumour
    • in a sudden hail of exploding flying glass

    Antonyms: flightless

  2. Brief or hurried.
    • flying visit
  3. Capable of moving rapidly; highly mobile.
    • flying column
  4. Not secured by yards.
  5. Capable of foiling.
    • Flying ferries are the watercraft of the future!
  6. Designating a cattle brand consisting of a letter extended on both sides with tilde-like curved lines.
    • He brands his cow W (flying W) or — (two-bar). - 1911, Boys' Life, volume 1, number 1, page 25:
    • […] some seventy-five cows belonging to William and Bernie with a Flying W […] - 1972, Willie Newbury Lewis, Tapadero: The Making of a Cowboy, page 154:
    • Wyles cut the fence, keeping the Flying D cowboys occupied rounding up their cattle. - 2013, Janette Kenny, One Real Cowboy:

    Coordinate Terms: lazy

  7. Being able to glide through the air.
    • flying squirrel
    • flying snake

Origin

From Middle English fleynge, fleeʒinge, flihinde, vlyinde, vleoinde, flyand, ffleghand, flighand (also fleoninde, fleonninde, etc.), from Old English flēogende, from Proto-Germanic *fleugandz (“flying”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”), equivalent to fly + -ing. Cognate with Saterland Frisian fljoogend (“flying”), West Frisian fleanend (“flying”), Dutch vliegend (“flying”), German Low German flegend (“flying”), German fliegend (“flying”), Danish flyvende (“flying”), Swedish flygande (“flying”), Icelandic fljúgandi (“flying”).

Derived

actual flying time elapsed flying time flubber flying arch flying army flying baker Flying Banana flying bishop flying boat flying bomb flying brick flying bridge flying buttocks flying buttress flying camp flying car flying carp flying carpet flying cat flying circus flying coffin flying colours flying column flying cone

Noun

  1. An act of flight.
    • "Flyings" could vary considerably in complexity and lavishness and could involve an actor or property being either lifted from the stage into the flies above or vice versa. As Colin Visser has observed, flyings and...
  2. The action or process of sustained motion through the air.
    • His seconde hawke wexyd gery And was with flyenge wery. She had flowyn so oft, That on the rode loft She perkyd her to rest. - c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John...
  3. The action of sustained hydrodynamic lift on hydrofoils lifting the vessel hull lifted out of the water, for sustained motion across water.

    Synonyms: foiling hydrofoiling

Origin

From Middle English flyinge, fleyng, fleyinge, fleynge, fleghyng, fleiʒeyng, flyeghynge, equivalent to fly + -ing. Cognate with Danish flyvning (“flying”), Swedish flygning (“flying”), Norwegian flyvning, flygning, flyging, flying (“flying”).

Forms

flyings

Derived

bush flying dayflying flying ace flying machine flying school kiteflying paraflying sailflying

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of fly