a. and sb. [f. vbl. phr. see FLY sb.1]
A. adj. Ready or apt to fly away. a. Of articles of dress: Streaming, loose, négligé. b. Of persons: Flighty, extravagant, volatile.
Fly-away grass (U.S.), the Agrostis scaba, a common grass of North America, with a very loose light panicle. Also called hair-grass (Cent. Dict.).
1775. S. J. Pratt, Liberal Opinions (1783), II. 230. His reducing the fly-away farmer’s daughters to a proper sense of their condition.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., v. Drest in such a free and fly-away fashion, that the long ends of his loose red neckcloth were streaming out behind him quite as often as before. Ibid. (1848), Dombey, xl. It was not easy to put her into a fly-away bonnet now.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., III. v. 136. Receive the welcome of flighty servant-girls with flyaway caps on their heads and brooms in their hands.
1891. Pall Mall G., 21 May, 2/2. They have brought it home to the most flyaway supporter of the A.P.S.
B. sb. One that flies away. Cf. runaway.
1838. Emerson, Nat., Lit. Ethics, Wks. (Bohn), II. 212. Truth is such a fly-away, such a slyboots, so untransportable and unbarrelable a commodity, that it is as bad to catch as light.
b. Naut. A delusive appearance, of land, a mirage. Also quasi-proper name, Cape Flyaway.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
1883. in W. C. Russell, Sailor’s Lang.
