Fly sb.²

Pl. flies; in sense 3 b usually flys. [f. FLY v.¹; many of the senses have no mutual connection, being separate formations on the vb. OE. had flyȝe str. masc., action of flying = OHG. flug (MHG. vluc, mod.Ger. flug), ON. flugr (mod.Icel. flug neut.:—OTeut. *flugi-z, f. weak grade of *fleugan to FLY; but it is doubtful whether this survived the OE. period.]

  I.  The action of flying.

  1.  † The action or manner of flying, flight (obs.). In recent use, an act of flying.

a. 1000.  Crist, 645 (Gr.). Se fæla fuȝel flyȝes cunnode.

a. 1000.  Satan, 112 (Gr.).

c. 1425.  Festivals of the Church xxx. in Legends of the Holy Rood (1871), 221.

c. 1650.  Earle Westmorland, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 300.

1786.  Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), I. 178. He did not even acquaint the Admiralty Board how cruelly I had been treated; nor of the attempts which had been made to take me out of my ship by force, and that indignity offered under the fly of his Flag.

1828.  Disraeli, Infernal Marriage, III. iii. Novels (1881), 345. ’Twas an easy fly; the chariot [a car borne by owls] soon descended upon the crest of a hill.

1887.  Sporting Life, 22 June, 2/6. A two miles pigeon fly.

  b.  A flying visit. rare.

1833.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., 28 July, Early Letters, 244. We have had no other visitors except my Mother-in-law, for two weeks; and my Mother, Walter, and Helen, for a fly [note, I.e. for a flight, a flying visit.]

  c.  slang. A trick, dodge.

1861.  [F. W. Robinson], No Church, I. ix. 192. Hallo! who’s put you up to that fly?

  2.  On the fly: orig. on the wing, flying; hence, in motion, moving up and down.

  a.  gen. Also slang = ‘on the spree.’

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 51. The ‘first move’ in his mendicant career was taking them on the fly; which means meeting the gentry on their walks, and beseeching or at times menacing them till something is given.

1855.  J. D. Burn, Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 6. My father had been on the fly in that town for nine or ten days, and when his money was all done he sallied forth in the country upon a begging expedition.

1868.  Temple Bar Mag., XXIV. Nov., 538. I remember once going along Oxford Street, and I prigged an old woman’s ‘poke’ on the ‘fly.’

1892.  The Nation (N.Y.), 4 Aug., LV. 91/3. To borrow the language of the sportsman, he may be said to have caught the Melanesian people ‘on the fly.’

  b.  Baseball and (U.S. only) Cricket: The course of a ball that has been struck, until it touches the ground. Foul fly (see quot. 1874).

1872.  O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf-t., v. (1885), 119. It is a juggler’s trick, and there is no more religion in it than in catching a ball on the fly.

1874.  Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 41. Ketchum … was caught on the fly. Ibid., 58. Any high foul ball, held on the fly, is called a foul fly.

1882.  Philad. Press, 12 Aug., 8. That usually reliable fielder muffed the fly.

  II.  Something that flies, in various senses.

  3.  A quick-travelling carriage.

  † a.  ‘A stage-coach, distinguished by this name, in order to impress a belief of its extraordinary quickness in travelling’ (J.). Obs. exc. Hist.

1708.  in Mem. J. Hall, 21. Fly, a Waggon, i.e. Country Cart.

1759.  Gray, Lett., Wks. 1884, III. 21. The parcel will come by one of the flies.

1774.  Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 449. A letter wrote by him or you, and sent either on Tuesday night by the Grantham fly, or an express sent on Wednesday morning to Grantham, may convey a letter to me.

1816.  Scott, Antiq., i. The written handbill, which, pasted on a projecting board, announced that the Queensferry Diligence, or Hawes Fly, departed precisely at twelve o’clock on Tuesday, the fifteenth July, 17—.

1888.  Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, I. IV. 386. He had travelled up from Northamptonshire in a fly—devoting to the journey two days.

  b.  The name of a light vehicle, introduced at Brighton in 1816, and originally drawn or pushed by men; but a horse being soon employed, the name was gradually extended to any one-horse covered carriage, as a cab or hansom, let out on hire. Perh. short for FLY-BY-NIGHT, q.v.

  Local usage of the word varies; in some places fly is confined to a ‘four-wheeler’; but it is generally applied to a vehicle hired from a livery-stable, and not plying for hire.

1818.  C. Wright, Brighton Ambulator, 170–1. A nouvelle kind of four-wheel vehicles, drawn by a man and an assistant, are very accommodating to visitors and the inhabitants. They are denominated Flys, a name given by a gentleman at the Pavilion, upon their first introduction in 1816.

1828.  Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 185. We then took a fly, as they call the light carriages, and drove as far as the Devil’s Ditch.

1830.  T. E. Hook, Maxwell, II. ii. 53. One of the Brighton boatmen hailed a boy, who had just jumped ashore, and bid him go and get a fly…. He heard an additional direction given to the lad not to bring a horse fly.

1839.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 113–4. We go to lecture this year very commodiously in what is called a fly (a little chaise with one horse), furnished us from a livery-stable hard by, at a very moderate rate.

1844.  Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. ii. Get a fly at the station, and you will be at Millbank by 8.40.

1881.  Lady Herbert, Edith, v. 118. Soon after breakfast a fly at the door, to catch the 10.50 train, was announced.

  4.  Something attached by the edge. Cf. FLAP sb.⁴

  a.  A strip or lap on a garment, to contain or cover the button-holes; hence something used to cover or connect (see quot. 1884).

1844.  Regul. & Ord. Army, 154. [Trousers] Open in front, with a Fly and Five Buttons.

1884.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 351/1. Fly. The fore flap of a bootee. A strip of leather which overwraps the front vamp and receives the strings or other fastening.

  b.  In a tent: ‘The sloping or roof part of the canvas’ (Yule); also, the flap at the entrance, forming a door.

1810.  Williamson, E. India Vade M., II. 452–3. The main part of the operation of pitching the tent, consisting of raising the flies, may be performed, and shelter afforded, without the walls, &c., being present.

1840.  E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports Foreign Lands, II. iii. 55. The light foliage of the tamarind trees was dancing in fantastic shadows on the fly and white walls of our tent, as we sat under their friendly boughs, inhaling the grateful fumes of a cheroot. (Note. The roof or top part of the tent).

1882.  Frank H. Cushing, My Adventures in Zuñi, in Century Mag., XXV. Dec., 195/2. We had not been there long when, to Hillers’ disgust and my delight, two or three Indians approached, peered through the fly, and then came in, and squatted on their haunches near the entrance.

  c.  Of a flag: (a) The breadth from the staff to the end; (b) the part farthest from the staff.

1841.  R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 105. Fly. That part of a flag which extends from the Union to the extreme end.

1864.  Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xviii. § 36 (ed. 3), 287. The Pennon was small in size, pointed or swallow-tailed at the Fly, and borne immediately below the Lance-head of the knight whose personal Ensign it was.

  d.  Theat. in pl. The space over the proscenium, including the upper mechanism and the galleries on each side from which it is worked.

1805.  European Mag., XLVII. June, 447/1. A sky-scene was rent to pieces, and they began upon the side scenes, when a large portion of scenery from the top (called the flies) fell upon the stage with great violence.

1859.  Smiles, Self-Help, v. (1860), 126. Young Pugin accordingly hired himself out as a common carpenter at Covent Garden Theatre, first working under the stage, then behind the flys, then upon the stage itself.

1887.  Daily Tel., 27 May, 3. Sparks fell from the flies upon the stage.

  5.  In various technical uses.

  a.  Naut. A compass card: see quot. 1610 and CARD sb.² 4. Hence, on a terrestrial globe: The set of rhumbs drawn from a selected point on the surface (? obs.). Also, on a vane: see quot.

1571.  Digges, Pantom., I. xxix. I ij b. It is also requisite, that within Theodelitus you haue a needle or fly so rectified, that being brought to his due place the crosse diameters of the Planisphere may demonstrate the foure principall quarters of the Horizon, East, Weste, North and Southe.

1610.  W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, II. vi. 56. The Flie is a Card diuided into eight, sixteene, thirty two equall parts in the Limbe with competent extention to shew the Meridian and Coastages of the Plot.

1690.  Leybourn, Curs. Math., 611. Upon the top of the Box wherein the Fly and Needle is fastned.

1773.  Johnson, (ed. 4), Fly, 3, that part of a vane which points how the wind blows.

1789–96.  J. Morse, Am. Un. Geog., I. 49. Observe, while the quadrant lies in this position, what rhumb of the nearest fly runs mostly parallel to the edge of the quadrant, and what rhumb shews nearly the bearing required.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fly or Compass-Card.

  b.  A speed-regulating device, usually consisting of vanes upon a rotating shaft, chiefly used in musical boxes and the striking parts of clock machinery.

1599.  T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 35.

1812–6.  J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 380. This fly strikes the air with so large a surface, that the resistance it experiences prevents the train of wheels from going too fast.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 105. When the striking train is discharged it would run with increasing speed but for the fly, whose progress is opposed by the air with a force proportional to the square of the velocity of the fly.

  c.  A fly wheel, a pair of weighted arms, or other device involving the same principle, used to regulate the speed of machinery.

1641.  Wilkins, Math. Magick, I. xiii. 87–8. If we suppose a man tied in the place of the weight, it were easie by a single hair fastned unto the fly or ballance of the Jack, to draw him up from the ground.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 49. The Fly is made sometimes with two, sometimes with four Arms from the Center, and sometimes the Arms are mad longer, sometimes shorter: The more Arms, and also the longer Arms, are to make the Jack go slower.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 51. A fly is sometimes employed for a very different purpose from that of a regulator of motion—it is employed as a collector of power.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 895/1. Fly.… 11. The swinging weighted arm of some kinds of presses.

  d.  = FANNER 2.

1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 127. As the corn is often carried to an eminence to be winnowed, for the sake of a free current of air, few winnowing-machines, saving a common whisk or fly, are used in this county.

1836.  Penny Cycl., V. 307/1. A winnowing machine with a fly and sieves is the only additional instrument in general use.

  e.  One of the cylinders of a carding machine.

1842.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XXI. 932/1. The worker next the doffers is called the fly, from its great velocity.

1888.  R. Beaumont, Woollen & Worsted Cloth Manuf., ii. 56. The doffer removes the fibres brought on to the surface of the swift by the fly.

  f.  In Knitting (machine), Spinning, Weaving (see quots.). Also in Hand-spinning: the spindle.

1851.  L. D. B. Gordon, Art Jrnl. Illust. Catal., 1**/2. The operation of spinning is carried on by drawing out the fibre from the rock, and supplying it regularly to the fly, which is caused to turn rapidly and twist it into a thread or yarn.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 895/1. Fly.… 3. (Knitting-machine.) Another name for the Latch. 4. (Spinning.) The arms which revolve around the bobbin in a spinning-frame, to twist the roving or yarn which is wound on the bobbin. 6. (Weaving.) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.

  g.  In the pianoforte (see quots.).

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Fly. A hinged board which covers the keys of the pianoforte or organ when not in use.

1879.  A. J. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 619/2. There is a screw perforating the jack, tongue, or fly, as it is variously called, of the grasshopper [in a pianoforte].

  h.  In a screw-log (see quot.).

1882.  Capt. Moriarty in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XIV. 777/2. The ‘fly’ [of a screw-log] consists of a hollow copper cylinder about 9 or 10 inches long with four fins or blades placed at a given angle, causing it to rotate once in a certain distance.

  i.  Metal-working. An apparatus worked by the horizontal swinging of a weighted lever, for cutting out with a die pieces of metal of a required shape from a bar or sheet.

1831.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 211. Not only with a fly, but with a pair of stout shears, nails of almost any size or shape might actually and easily be cut out of rolled metal.

  6.  Waste cotton. Cf. FLUE sb.², FLUFF.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 274/1. The refuse of these, and of fly, or short staple cotton, which has gathered below the machine, are removed by attendants from time to time.

1893.  Labour Commission, Gloss., Fly, loose down.

  III.  attrib. and Comb. (In many of these the first element may be really the verb-stem.)

  7.  a. Simple attributive, as (sense 3 b) fly-horse, -proprietor, (sense 4 a) fly-front, (sense 4 d) fly-gallery, (sense 5 b) fly-pinion, (sense 5 c) fly-piston, -screw.

1893.  Times, 8 July, 12/2. This coat has a *fly front buttoning underneath.

1888.  Gustav Kobbé, Behind the Scenes of an Opera-house, in Scribner’s Mag., IV. Oct., 437. The *fly-galleries on either side, from the lowest of which the drop-scenes and borders are worked.

1891.  C. T. C. James, Rom. Rigmarole, 134. That moribund *fly-horse.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 106. *Fly Pinion…. The pinion in a clock which carries the fly.

1831.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 48. In which [cylinder] works a weighted, or what is called a *fly-piston.

1845.  P. O. Directory, 6 Home Counties, 631/1. Box John, *fly proprietor.

1831.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 152. In the production of boxes for *fly-screws and others having several worms.

  b.  objective, as (sense 3 b) fly-driver, (sense 5 g) fly-finisher; fly-finishing vbl. sb.

1847.  Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, v. (1879), 59. As every new comer was an excuse for drinking all the toasts over again, the meeting was becoming exceedingly communicative and above vulgar prejudices, which, in the beginning, had somewhat operated against the *fly-drivers on the part of the family coachmen.

  8.  Special Comb., as fly-ball (Baseball), a ball that may be caught ‘on the fly’; fly-bill, a handbill to be scattered broadcast, also attrib.; fly-block (Naut.), ‘the block spliced into the topsail-tye’ (Adm. Smyth); fly-bridge = FLYING BRIDGE; fly-catch (Baseball), a catch ‘on the fly’; fly-clock, a clock regulated by a fly, before the introduction of pendulums; fly-coach = FLY sb.² 3 a; fly-cutter, a cutting tool driven at a high rate of speed; fly-door (Mining), a door opening either way; fly-drill (see quot.); fly-governor (see quot.) = FLY sb.² 5 c; fly-line, the line of flight taken by a bird in its regular migrations; fly-page, the side of a fly-leaf (see FLY-LEAF); fly-penning (see quot.); fly-piston (see quot.); fly-pole, = giant-stride; fly-press, a screw press worked by a fly (see 5 c); fly-pulley, a pulley that may be shifted along the length of a shaft; fly-punching press, fly-rail (see quots.); fly-reed (Weaving), the reed of a fly-shuttle loom; fly-rope (see quot.); fly-sail (Naut.), ? = flying JIB; fly-shuttle (Weaving) (see quot. 1874); fly-spring (see quot.); fly-table, a table with flaps that may be let down; fly-tail, U.S., a small gill-net without sinkers formerly used for catching perch, etc. (Cent. Dict.); fly-tent, ? a tent having a fly (sense 4 b); fly-tip, fly-title, fly-tool, fly-up (Naut.) (see quots.); fly-wagon = FLY sb.² 3 a.

1874.  Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 29. They should be … excellent judges of *fly-balls.

1891.  Daily News, 28 Sept., 7/1. A *fly-bill poster.

1841.  R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 46. Then make fast your hook to the bight of the rope, and reeve the other end through the *fly-block for a fall.

1614.  Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, III. 106.

1874.  Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 30. Chances for *fly-catches from short, high balls.

1830.  Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., II. vi. (1851), 178. By clocks he [Lord Bacon] could not have meant pendulum clocks, which were not then known (the first made in England was in 1662,) but *fly-clocks.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., i. It is upon such occasions that the Insides and Outsides, to use the appropriate vehicular phrases, have reason to rue the exchange of the slow and safe motion of the ancient *Fly-coaches, which, compared with the chariots of Mr. Palmer, so ill deserve the name.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 105. Latterly *fly cutters are often made double.

1851.  Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh, *Fly doors or swing doors.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 895/1. *Fly-drill. One having a reciprocating fly-wheel which gives it a steady momentum. Ibid., 895/2. *Fly-governor. One which regulates speed by the impact of vanes upon the air.

1884.  H. Seebohm, Brit. Birds, II. 506. One of the *‘fly-lines’ of this species crosses the Bermuda Islands.

1892.  J. Cave-Browne, Hist. Boxley, 103. It [a Parish Register] … often contains on its *fly-pages chance notes and Memoranda of considerable interest.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Fly-penning, a mode of manuring land practised in England and in the colonies by folding cattle or sheep in rotation over different parts of it.

1884.  J. J. Pope, Number One, iv. 101. A *‘fly-pole’ and a swing should be in every playground; the one exercises the muscles of the arms and legs, and the other throws nearly all the muscles of the trunk into action, beneficially working the spine, the shoulders, and the chest.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., The coining press or *fly-press.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 896/2. Fly-press. A screw-press in which the power is derived from a weighted arm, swinging in a horizontal plane, as in embossing and die presses.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., p. lvii/1. Crank-shaft which carries *fly-pulley for transmitting the power by means of a strap.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 896/1. *Fly-punching Press. A press for cutting teeth on saws and for other purposes.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Fly-rail. That part of a table which turns out to support the leaf.

1863.  J. Watson, Art Weaving, 126. When Mr. Bullough introduced his Loom with the *Fly Reed, it created quite a sensation in the trade.

1892.  Lockwood, Dict. Mech. Engin., App., *Fly Rope, a term often used to denote a rope of cotton or hemp used for telodynamic transmission of power.

1819.  J. H. Vaux, Mem., I. vii. 65. During this cruise, we lay-to for twenty-one successive days, in a tremendous gale from the N. E., with only a storm jib, and *fly-sail set.

1795.  J. Aikin, Manchester, 300. The great advantages of scribbling and shearing by steam or water, with the use of the *fly shuttle, will most probably be a means of establishing manufactories there.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 896/2. Fly-shuttle. A shuttle driven by a picker, in contradistinction to one thrown by hand.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 106. *Fly Spring…. A spring that causes the outer cover of a watch case to fly open.

1785.  Cowper, Lett. to J. Newton, 19 March. The *fly-table was too slight and too small.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 8. Three *fly-tents, with mattresses laid on the ground, accommodate six Europeans.

1874.  Chadwick, Base Ball Man., 58. *Fly Tip. This is a foul ball held by the catcher, sharp from the bat.

1888.  Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., *Fly-title.—The half-title in front of the general title, or which divides sections of a work.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., *Fly-tool is a very light narrow wooden spade shod with iron, which the navigators of a canal use for cutting or throwing out any soft clay … or the like.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Fly-up, a sudden deviation upwards from a sheer line.

1827.  Hood, in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1547. The ponderous *fly-waggon passed me like a bird upon the road, so tediously slow is my pace.