See also Flag.
To fly high (or rather high).—1. verb. phr. (common).—To get, or be
drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
2. (colloquial).—To keep the best company, maintain the best
appearances, and affect the best aims: i.e., to be a High-flier (q.v.).
Also, to venture for the biggest stakes in the biggest way.
To fly low, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make as little of oneself as
possible; to sing small (q.v.); and (among thieves) to keep out of the
way when wanted (q.v.).
To fly off the handle, verb. phr. (American pioneer).—To lose temper;
to fail of a promise; to jilt; to die; also to slip off the handle
(q.v.); to disappoint in any way. [In pioneer life for an axe to part
company with its handle is a serious trial to temper and patience.]
1843–4. Haliburton, The Attaché. You never see such a crotchical
old critter as he is. He flies right off the handle for nothing.
1867. Home Journal (New York), 21 July (speaking of a man who had
succeeded to a large fortune it says) he went off the handle in
England rather unexpectedly.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 195. If a fair lady loses her
temper, or worst of all, if she breaks the tender promise, she is
said to fly off the handle, and the disappointment is as serious to
the unlucky lover as a lost axe to many a settler.
1888. Pittsburg Chronicle. ‘I can’t say that I’am stuck on Sue
Fitzpercy,’ remarked Amy. ‘She is liable to fly off the handle.’
To fly out, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To get angry; to scold.
1612. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, Act II., p. 317 (Plays, 1874). For
wherefore rage wives at their husbands so when they fly out? for
zeal against the sin?
1665–6. Pepys, Diary, 17 Jan. It is to be feared that the
Parliament will fly out against him and particular men, the next
Session.
1712. Spectator, No. 479. He (Socrates) has said, My dear friend,
you are beholden to Xantippe, that I bear so well your flying out
in a dispute.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xx. ‘And then the Colonel flies out
about his boy, and says that my wife insulted him!’
To make the fur (or feathers) fly, verb. phr. (common).—To attack
effectively; to make a disturbance; to quarrel noisily like two tom
cats on the tiles, who are said (in American) to pull fur, or to pull
wool.
1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 132. Thar, they’ve got him agin,
and now the fur flies.
1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. ‘Wait until the National Committee
assembles on February 22,’ said the organizer, ‘and you will see
the fur fly from the Cleveland hide.’
To take on the fly, verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To beg in the streets; a
specific usage of adverbial sense.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, II., p. 59. 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.
To fly a kite, verb. phr. (common).—To raise money by means of
accommodation bills; to raise the wind (q.v.).
1812. From an old Dublin Jester. [The story, however, with slight
variations, is told of other judges. See N. and Q., S. ix., 6
326–394.] In a case before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland Mr.
Curran, on behalf of the suitor, prayed to be relieved from the
payment of some bills for which he had not received consideration,
but only lent his name as an accommodation. Mr. Curran, in the
course of his pleadings, mentioned the terms kite and raising the
wind several times, when his lordship requested to know the meaning
of the words. ‘My lord,’ Mr. Curran replied, ‘in your country
(meaning England) the wind generally raises the kite, but with us,
significantly looking at the gentlemen of the bar, the kite raises
the wind.’
1848. Punch, XIV., p. 226. ‘The Model Gentleman.’ He never does ‘a
little discounting’ nor lends his hand to ‘flying a kite.’
1849. Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82. Flying the kite is rather a
perilous adventure.
1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Little Worries). You have a
kite you cannot fly, and creditors are pressing.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 23 Jan. Prince Alexis
Soltykoff, who has been flying kites, and getting into trouble
thereby, is the only son of Prince Soltykoff, the steward of the
Jockey Club.