Fly sb.¹

Pl. flies. Forms: fléeȝe (in comb. fléoȝ-, fléeh-) flýȝe, Northumb. fléȝe, 2–4 fliȝe, south. vliȝe, 3 fleoȝe, flye, south. vlie, 3–4 fleȝe, south. vleȝe, fleih, south. vleih, 3–7, 8 Sc. flie, 4–9 north. and Sc. flee, 4–5 flegh, (4 fleeȝe, fleh, flei(ghe, fley(e, flij), 5–7 flye, 7– fly. [OE. fléoȝe, flýȝe, wk. fem. (Northumb. fléȝe str. masc.) = MDu. vlieghe mod.Du. vlieg), OHG. flioga, fliuga (MHG. vliege, mod.Ger. fliege):—OTeut. *fleugôn-, f. root of *fleugan to fly. From the weak grade of the same root comes the equivalent Scandinavian word, ON., Sw. fluga, Da. flue.

  The plural form in -s appears in 13th c., but the original plural ending -n was not wholly obsolete in the 15th c.]

  † 1.  Any winged insect; as the bee, gnat, locust, moth, etc. Obs.; cf. 2, 3, 4 below, and BUTTERFLY.

c. 950.  Lindisfarne Gospels, Matt. xxiii. 24. Latuas blindo ȝie worðias ðone fleȝe.

1340.  Ayenb., 136. He is ase þe smale uleȝe þet makeþ þet hony.

1563.  Hyll, Art. Garden. (1593), 36. Flies (with the long hinder legges).

1599.  T. Moufet (title), Silkewormes and their flies.

1607.  Topsell, Serpents (1658), 653. The black Flies called Beetles.

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., I. viii. 113. Eating Flyes and wilde honey, not clothed in soft, but a hairy garment, and a leathern girdle, till he was thirty yeers of age.

1694.  Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 207. Here are divers sorts of Flies, as Butter-flies, Butchers-flies, Horse-flies.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1796), VIII. 149. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is transformed into a fly, or before the fly can pierce through its inclosure.

  b.  A dipterous or two-winged insect, esp. of the family Muscidæ.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Exod. viii. 29. For ðe ic ȝebidde and ðeos fleoȝe færþ fram ðe.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues (1888), 89. Al dai ðar cumeð to þohtes, al swo doð fliȝen to sare.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 473.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5990 (Cott.). To-morn þe fleies sal be you fra.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxiii. (1495), 130. Bees and flyes haue no voys, but make a voys in fleenge.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 72. The flye that setteth her vpon corrupt thinges & leueth the swete flowres.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 171.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 203. The infinite swarmes of flies that do shine like glow-wormes: to a stranger a strange spectacle.

1841–4.  Emerson, Ess., Prudence, Wks. (Bohn), I. 94. Do what we can, summer will have its flies; if we walk in the woods we must feed mosquitos; if we go a-fishing we must expect a wet coat.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 290. [Þes] dogge of helle kumeð snakerinde mid his blodie vlien of stinkinde þouhtes.

c. 1325.  Coer de L., 2917.

1607.  Dekker, Hist. Sir T. Wyatt, I. Wks. 1873, III. 84. The Fly is angrie, but hee wants a sting.

  d.  A type of something insignificant.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 428.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 272. Aleyn answerde I count hym nat a flye.

1529.  More, A Dialoge of Comfort against Tribulacion, I. ii. Wks. 1123/1. The ground and foundacion of faith, without which had ready before, al the spiritual comfort that any man may speake of can neuer auaile a flye.

1794.  Burns, ‘O Philly, happy be that day,’ x. I care nae wealth a single flie.

a. 1830.  Hazlitt, Confers. Authors. It is said, Charles X. is a good-natured man: it may be so, and that he would not hurt a fly; but in that quarrel he would shed the blood of millions of men.

  e.  Phr.: Fly in amber: see AMBER 5. Fly on the (coach-) wheel (see quot. 1870). To send away with a fly in one’s ear: cf. FLEA 4. To break, crush, a fly upon the wheel (fig.): to spend a great deal of energy and labor upon something not worth it. Let that fly stick in (or to) the wall (Sc.): say nothing more on that subject. Don’t let flies stick to your heels; be quick.

1606.  Rel. Proc. agst. late Traitors, Zz 4 b. The princes … sent away your second Mercury with a flie in his eare.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, II. (1723), 82. Flyes, and Insects, that I have yet seen inclos’d in Amber.

1814.  Scott, Wav., lxxi. ‘O whisht, Colonel, for the love o’ God! let that flee stick i’ the wa’.’

1836.  Going to Service, iv. 44–5. Don’t let flies stick to your heels, and don’t let ten minutes get the start of you; go you before, and let time follow.

1840.  Lytton, Money, V. iii. I have the greatest respect, I assure you, for the worthy and intelligent flies upon both sides of the wheel.

a. 1859.  De Quincey, Incognito, Wks. XI. 2. To apply any more elaborate criticism to them, would be ‘to break a fly upon the wheel.’

1870.  Brewer, Dict. Phrase & Fable, Fly on the coach wheel, one who fancies himself of mighty importance, but who is in reality of none at all.

  f.  Proverbs.

a. 1420.  Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 110. A flye folowethe the hony.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Replyc., 752. The blynde eteth many a flye.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 75.

  2.  With defining word as blow-, flesh-, horse-, house-, sheep-fly, etc.: see those words. Black fly, U.S. (see quot.). Hessian fly (Cecidomyia Destructor), an insect that infests wheat, said to have been introduced into America with the Hessian troops, during the War of Independence. Spanish fly = CANTHARIDES. Tsetse-fly (Glossina morsitans), a South-African fly which attacks cattle.

a. 1605.  Montgomerie, Flyting w. Polwart, 314. The feavers, the fearcie, with the speinȝie flees.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Pref. The pilularie beetle and Spanish flies.

1799.  G. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1893, XIV. 196. Of the facts related in the enclosed letter, relative to the loss of his Crop, by the Hessian fly, I know nothing.

1812.  J. Smyth, Pract. of Customs, 51. Cantharides, commonly called Spanish flies, are of a shining green colour, intermingled with somewhat of the blue, and of a golden yellow; of an acrid highly caustic taste, about an inch long.

1877.  T. Baines, Gold Regions S. E. Africa, 109. A considerable portion of this strip is infested with the Tsetse fly, and a point to be yet proved is whether this belt of fly is sufficiently narrow to be passed through in one night.

1889.  Century Dict., s.v. Fly, Black Fly, any one of the species of the genus Simulium, some of which are extraordinarily abundant in the northern woods of America, and cause great suffering by their bites.

  3.  In farmers’ and gardeners’ language, often used without defining prefix for the insect parasite chiefly injurious to the particular crop or animal indicated by the context; the hop-fly, potato-fly, turnip-fly, sheep-fly, etc. Chiefly collect. in sing. as the name of the disease consisting in or caused by the ravages of these insects.

a. 1704.  Locke, Wks. (1714), III. 436. Begin to think of Being in general, which is Being abstracted from all its inferiour Species, fefore they come to think of the Fly in their Sheep, or the Tares in their Corn.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb., 122. To prevent the Fly [in turnips] some propose to sow Ashes with the Seed, and others to sow Soot just at their first coming up.

1799.  Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, XVII. 47. To the person who shall discover to the Society an easy and efficacious method of destroying the Fly on Hops, superior to any hitherto known;—the Gold Medal..

1819.  Rees, Cycl., Fly, in Rural Economy, a disease incident to sheep, in consequence of their being stricken by a fly, which produces a sort of maggot that eats into, and remains in the flesh.

1842.  Johnson, Farmer’s Encycl., Fly in Turnips. (Altica nemorum.) The vulgar name for a species of flea-beetle, which attacks the turnip crop in the cotyledon, or seed leaf, as soon as it appears.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 281. This injury may sometimes be discovered from the marks left on the skin by the blows of the fly, but when such marks are not present it is readily discovered by the motions and appearances of the animal.

1888.  Times, 26 June, 12/1. In some (hop) gardens a good deal of fly exists.

  4.  Angling. a. An insect attached to a hook as a lure in the mode of angling called fly-fishing. b. An artificial fly, i.e., a fish-hook dressed with feathers, silk, etc., so as to imitate some insect.

  Often collect. in the phrase to fish with fly.

1589.  Pappe with an Hatchet, 3. I doo but yet angle with a silken flye, to see whether Martins will nibble.

1653.  Walton, Angler, iv. 93. Or with a Flie, either a natural or an artificial Flie. Ibid., iv. 111. Your gold, or what materials soever you make your Fly of.

a. 1740.  Tickell, Ep. to Lady bef. Marriage, 37.

1881.  C. Gibbon, Heart’s Problem, x. 154. At last in triumph he landed the exhausted fish, tossed it into his basket, and cast his fly again.

  fig.  1624.  Fletcher, Rule a Wife, I. i.

  † 5.  a. A familiar demon (from the notion that devils were accustomed to assume the form of flies). b. transf., and with allusion to the insect’s finding its way into the most private places: A spy (cf. F. mouche). c. A parasite, flatterer (cf. L. musca).

1584.  R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. xv. 51. The poor may played with a flie, otherwise called a divell or familiar.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., I. ii. A riflng flye: none o’ your great familiars.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 241. There was this further Good in his employing of these Flies and Familiars; That as the vse of them was cause that many Conspiracies were reuealed, to the Fame and Suspition of them kept (no doubt) many Conspiracies from beeing attempted.

a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, Ordinary, II. iv. He hath a Fly only to win good cloaths.

1649.  Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., 179. These mercenary Flies, whether of State, or of Religion, are justly hatefull, next to the publique executioners.

  6.  Printing. a. A ‘printer’s devil’ (cf. 5 a). b. The person who takes the sheets from the press, the ‘taker-off’; also, that part of a printing machine which usually performs that office now. (Cf. FLYER.)

  a.  1683.  Moxon, Printing, 373. Devil.… the Workmen do Jocosely call them Devils; and sometimes Spirits, and sometimes Flies.

1841.  Savage, Dict. Printing, s.v. These boys are not now called devils, as in the time of Moxon, but Flies, or Fly Boys.

  b.  1732.  in Hone, Every-day Bk. (1825–7), II. 1240. The inferior order among us, called flies, employed in taking newspapers off the press.

1824.  J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 654. Fly. The person that takes off the sheets from the press in cases of expedition.

1871.  Amer. Encycl. Printing, 172/1. Fly.—An invention for taking off or delivering the sheets from a power-press.

  † 7.  a. A ‘patch’ for the face. [tr. F. mouche.]

1658.  R. White, trans. A late Discourse, 102. She was perswaded that the Patches and Flies which she put upon her face, gave her a great deal of ornament, therefore she was careful to wear the most curious sort of them.

  † b.  Some kind of head-dress. Cf. fly-cap (in 11 below). Obs.

1773.  History of Lord Ainsworth, I. 139. Her beautiful tresses were … fastened behind with a diamond comb; over which was plac’d a small French fly, ornamented with large sprigs set with brilliants.

1774.  Westm. Mag., II. 259. Ladies … still wear their hair low before … Small flys, the wings very wide apart at the top, and very small and short lappets.

  † 8.  With reference to a festival formerly observed by the Oxford cooks. Obs.

  On Whit-Tuesday the cooks ‘marched in silken doublets on horseback to Bartholomews or Bullingdon Green to fetch the fly,’ and ‘on Michaelmas Day they rode thither again to carry the fly away.’ See Aubrey, Rem. Gentilisme (1881), 202 (written in 1686); Aubrey supposed the sense to be that of 5 a above.

c. 1602.  in Narcissus (ed. M. L. Lee, 1893), App. ii. 32. They [the cooks] have sett a little porch before so great an house, and have called their show the flye.

1654.  Gayton, Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot, in. v. 99. The man that preaches the Cooks Sermon at Oxford, when that plump Society rides upon their Governours Horses to fetch in the Enemie, the Flie.

1661–6.  Wood, Antiq. Oxford (O. H. S.), II. 515, note. Many people resorted here [St. Bartholomew’s Hospital]; as the cooks bringing in of the fly, the boyes their at May Day to bring the first fruits of Flora.

  9.  slang. A policeman. Cf. BLUE-BOTTLE 2.

1857.  R. L. Snowden, Magistrate’s Assistant (ed. 3), 446. A policeman … A fly.

  10.  attrib. and Comb.

  a.  simple attributive, as fly-blight, -kind, -maggot, -screen, stale, -wing; (sense 2) (tsetse-) fly-belt, -country; (sense 4) as fly-tackle; (sense 6 b) as fly-pulley.

1894.  Westm. Gaz., 17 Nov., 5/1. The Beira line had now completely spanned the *‘fly’ belt.

1887.  Daily News, 28 June, 2/5. The plantations in these districts being most affected by the *‘fly blight.’

1891.  Pall Mall G., 8 Dec., 1/3. When the railway … has crossed the *fly country.

1691.  Ray, Creation, 6. The *Fly-kind, if under that name we comprehend all other flying Insects. Ibid. (1692), II. 123. The *fly maggots.

1875.  Southward, Dict. Typogr., s.v. Setting the Fly.… Run through a sheet of the paper to be printed, and let it run down the fly so that it is barely held by the *fly pulleys.

1791.  W. Bartram, Carolina, 83. When they appear in the *fly state.

1834.  Medwin, Angler in Wales, II. 113. I was half sorry that I had no *fly-tackle, and, soon tired of a sport in which I could not participate, made good my retreat.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., 192. He settes not a *fle wyng bi Sir Cesar fulle even.

  b.  objective, (sense 1 b) as fly-breeder, -fancier, -hunter, -killer, -scarer, † -way-driver, -whipper; fly-catching vbl. sb. and ppl. adj., fly-hunting vbl. sb.; (sense 4) as fly caster, -maker, -taker; fly-dressing, -making vbl. sbs.; fly-taking ppl. adj.

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), IV, xciv. 144. ‘I never dispute upon cabbage with the son of a cucumber,’ said the *fly-breeder, alluding to the pedigree of his antagonist.

1702.  C. Mather, Magn. Chr. IV. (1853), II. 105. He was endued with a certain soaring and serious greatness of soul, which rendered *fly-catching too low a business for him.

1890.  Webster, Fly-catching (Zoöl.), having the habit of catching insects on the wing.

1886.  J. H. Keene, Fish. Tackle, 202. There is no royal road to *fly-dressing, however.

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), IV. xciv. 145. The *fly-fancier, thus questioned, accused the mathematician of havinng been the aggressor, in likening his head to a light cabbage.

1895.  C. C. Abbott, Birds about us, iv. 113. They are fly-catchers, not *fly-hunters, and it is the insect on the wing that concerns them more than the crawling slug down in the dirt.

1838.  Dickens, Mem. Grimaldi, ii. He had been *fly-hunting with his friend, from early morning until night, thinking of nothing but flies.

1658.  Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 951. It is said of Hercules in performing divine Worship, whereas he was almost killed by the Flies, that he offered sacrifice to Jupiter, called [char.] the Fly-way-driver, by which means they were presently dispatcht into the River Alphaeus, from whence he was afterwards called by the name of Muscarius or *Fly-killer.

1787.  Best, Angling (ed. 2), 77, heading. The Complete Fly-fisher; or, Every man his own *fly-maker.

1653.  Walton, Angler, iv. 113. He shall catch such store of them, as will encourage him to grow more and more in love with the Art of *flie-making.

1801–3.  W. B. Daniel, Rural Sports, II. 296. Hackles are a very important article in Fly-making; they are the long slender feathers that hang from the head of a Cock down his neck.

1638.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 68. On the left hand, Rasea Bousing *fly-skarer.

1889.  Century Dict., *Fly-taker, in angling, any fish that will take the fly.

1840.  Tickell, in Jrnl. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, IX. 705. The mahseer, and the little *fly-taking Cyprinus, miscalled ‘trout’ in Upper India, are not found in these lower latitudes.

1658.  Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 951. It is said of Hercules in performing divine Worship, whereas he was almost killed by the Flies, that he offered sacrifice to Jupiter, called [char.] the *Fly-way-driver, by which means they were presently dispatcht into the River Alphaeus, from whence he was afterwards called by the name of Muscarius or Fly-killer.

1872.  Baker, Nile Tribut., viii. 134. The long tails of the giraffes are admirable *fly-whippers, but they would be of little service against such a determined and blood-thirsty enemy as the seroot.

  c.  instrumental, as fly-angling, † -biting vbl. sbs., fly-bit, -stuck, -swarmed adjs.

1653.  Walton, Angler, iv. 110. These and the May-fly are the ground of all *fly-Angling.

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 203. Solitude.

1659.  D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 417. It is comparatively but a … meer *fly-biting to what they undergo.

1877.  T. Baines, Gold Regions S. E. Africa, 151. The symptoms exhibited by a *fly-stuck ox.

1879.  E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, 69. The *fly-swarmed sweetmeat shops.

  11.  Special comb.: fly-bat, a species of fly found in Barbadoes; fly-bird, a humming-bird (cf. F. oiseau-mouche); fly-blister, a plaster made of Cantharides; fly-book, a case in the form of a book, in which anglers keep artificial flies; fly-brush, a brush for driving away flies; fly-cage, a contrivance for catching flies; † fly-cap, a kind of head-dress (see quot. 1762); fly-case, the covering of an insect; spec. the anterior wing of beetles, elytron; fly-duster = fly-brush; † fly-fringe (see quot.); fly-hook, a hook baited with a fly; fly-line, a line for fly-fishing; fly-nut (see quot.); fly-paper, a sheet of paper prepared to catch or poison flies; fly-powder, a powder used to kill flies; fly-rod, a rod for fly-fishing; fly-slicer, slang (see quot.); fly-snapper, U.S., a name of certain fly-catching birds, (a) the genus Myiagra; (b) Phainopepla nitens; fly-speck, -spot, a stain produced by the excrement of an insect; fly-specked, -speckled a., marked with fly-specks; fly-tier, -tyer, a maker of artificial flies; so fly-tying vbl. sb.; fly-time, the time when flies are to be met with or are troublesome; fly-tip, -top, a top-joint used for fly-fishing; fly-water, (a) an infusion or decoction of flies; (b) (see quot. 1855); fly-weevil, U.S., the common grain-moth (Gelechia cerealella) (Cent. Dict.); fly-whisk, an instrument for driving away flies. Also FLY-BANE, -BITTEN, -BLOW, -BLOWN, -CATCHER, -FISH, etc.

1750.  G. Hughes, Barbadoes, 211. This [Nightshade] is no sooner in Bloom than the *Fly-bats come from their lurking Holes, and, flying from Flower to Flower, dart into these, severally, their long twirling Tongue or Proboscis, with which they suck out either the Honey-dew, or some other Moisture from the Bottom of the Flower.

1783.  W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., II. 468. The *fly-bird is esteemed one of the most beautiful and extraordinary of any in nature; but, with all it’s plumage, it is no bigger than a cock-chaffer; and it makes a noise with it’s wings resembling the humming of a large fly.

1842.  Hood, Elm Tree, III. xxiii.

1848.  Kingsley, Yeast, xi. I put it in the squire’s *fly-book.

1888.  J. L. Allen, Two Kentucky Gentlemen of the Old School, in Century Mag., XXXV. April, 946/1. Awoke to find that they both had fallen asleep side by side on the grass and that the abandoned *fly-brush lay full across his face.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xxxvii. A paper *fly-cage dangled from the ceiling, to which he occasionally raised his eyes in gloomy thought.

1753.  Gentl. Mag., XXIII. 123/2. Tho’ I do not wish the ladies to adopt his head dress of an hundred yards of flannel, yet I think they should not sacrifice the vigour of health, and the bloom of beauty to a *fly cap, or any fashionable mode of more southern climates, till our air is become equally temperate by the return of the sun.

1762.  Lond. Chronicle, 16–18 Feb., 167/3. The Fly Cap … is fixed upon the forehead, forming the figure of an over-grown butterfly, resting upon its head, with outstretched wings.

1826.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 353. Mrs. Nicholson, a hugh overgrown dame, dressed in a style which twenty years ago had been twenty years out of fashion, with powdered hair and fly-caps and lappets, and a black lace tippet, looking exactly like a head-dress cut out of an old pocket-book, all bustle and speechifying, and fidget and fuss.

1860.  Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 270. The kahili is made of black feathers, fastened on a pole, much resembling a *fly-duster.

1860.  Fairholt, Costume, *Fly-fringe. A peculiar edging for ladies’ sleeves and dresses; much worn in the early part of the reign of George III.

1706.  R. H[owlett], Angler’s Sure Guide, 88. Fish with these Baits, on a middle-siz’d *Flie-Hook, long in the Shank, with a Bristle on it. Ibid., 97. The *Flie-Line should be made very taper, for three of four Links next Hook, of three very good Hairs in a Link, at least, for large Trouts in a clear River.

1854.  Badham, Halieut., ii. 19. They had neither fly-rods, fly-lines, reels, collar, gaff-hook, nor landing-net.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 896/2. *Fly-nut. A nut with wings, to be twisted by the hand.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 435. *Fly-papers came, generally, into street-traffic, I am informed, in the summer of 1848.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, *Fly powder, the black coloured powder obtained by the spontaneous oxidizement of metallic arsenic in the air.

1684.  R. H., School Recreat., 149. Likewise distinguish the Line for the Ground Angle, and that for the *Fly-Rod, the last must be stronger than the first.

1843.  Atkinson, in Zoologist, I. 294. I tapped it [a water-rat] with the end of my fly-rod, which is not thicker than a crow-quill, and therefore could not inflict a very severe blow.

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, *Fly slicers, life guard men. from their sitting on horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords.

1895.  C. C. Abbott, Birds about us, ii. 75. It is said they feed ‘almost exclusively’ on the mistletoe. Well, the mistletoe was extraordinarily abundant, and did the *flysnapper only make believe to launch out after insects?

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Fly-speck. A name given to the exrementitious stains of insects, chiefly of the common fly.

1883.  G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., March, 528/1. Five pounds for a *fly-specked old engraving with a worm-eaten frame!

1881.  Miss Laffan, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 333. Pictures, yellowed by turf smoke and well *fly-speckled.

1851.  D. Jerrold, St. Giles, v. 47. You know nothing; else you ’d know how a contempt for the world sharpens a man’s wits, and improves his eyesight. Bless you! there are a thousand cracks and flaws and *fly-spots upon everything about us, that we should never see without it.

1881.  Echo, 11 April, 3/6. The … cleverest *fly-tier in England.

1706.  R. H[owlett], Angler’s Sure Guide, 86. This is their [Fishes’] constant Course all *Flie-time, always biting best at any sort when that sort of Flie comes most to the River.

1757.  Dyer, Fleece, I. 366.

1706.  R. H[owlett], Angler’s Sure Guide, 79. The Stock [of the Rod] bored no wider than to carry a Ground-top therein, or a *Flie-top, that you may put up your Ground-Top, and fish with a Flie when you will.

1887.  H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, Mod. Impr. Fish. Tackle, 23. Carried this branch of *fly-tying to great excellence.

1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., I. 306. I should have recommended … *fly-water for disorders in the eyes.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., Fly-water. A solution of arsenic, or decoction of quassia-bark, for killing flies.

1789.  L. Carter, in Trans. Amer. Soc., I. 274 (title), Observations concerning the *Fly-weevil that destroys the Wheat.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 132. A kind of *fly-whisk made of palm-leaves is also in very general use.

  b.  In various plant-names, as fly-agaric, Agaricus muscarius = FLY-BANE 1 c; fly-dod, ragwort (Senecio Jacobæa); fly-flower (see quot. 1878); fly-honeysuckle, (a) a variety of honeysuckle (Lonicera Xylosteum); (b) a species of Halleria; fly-orchid, -orchis, a name for Ophrys muscifera; fly-poison, fly-wort (see quots.).

1866.  Treas. Bot., *Fly-agaric. The common name of Agaricus muscarius, a spendid scarlet species studded with white or yellow warts, which is common in birch woods, and is used to make a decoction for destroying flies.

1826.  R. Wilbraham, Chesh. Gloss., *Fly-dod.… It is usually covered with a dusky yellow fly.

1640.  Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 1351. Orchis Myodes minor. the lesser *Flye flower.

1878–86.  Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Fly Flowers, (1) All species of Orchis except O. mascula—Glou. … (2) Prunella vulgaris—Glou.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., *Fly-honeysuckle.

1861.  Mrs. Lankester, Wild Flowers, 71. Lonicera Xylosteum, the Fly or Upright Honeysuckle.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. lvi. 222. We may call it in English properly *flie Orchis, bycause al the kindes of Serapias Orchis, haue in all their floures the proportion and likenesse of one kinde of flie or other.

1841.  Maunder, Sci. & Lit. Treas., Fly-orchis, in botany, the Orchis muscifera, a plant, so called from the resemblance it bears in figure to that of a fly.

1866.  Treas. Bot., *Fly-poison. Amianthium muscætoxicum.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl., Suppl. App., *Fly-wort, in botany, a name by which some call the lychnis of authors.

1866.  Treas. Bot., Fly-wort. A name applied to those species of Catasetum formerly called Myanthus.