- [countable] a small flying insect with two wings. There are many different types of fly and many of them spread disease.
- A fly was buzzing against the window.
- Flies rose in thick black swarms.
- A fly settled on the butter.
- I swatted the fly with a newspaper.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + fly- shoo
- shoo away
- swat
- …
- buzz
- crawl
- land (on something)
- …
- larva
- spray
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- [countable] a fly or something made to look like a fly, that is put on the end of a fishing line and used as bait to catch fish
- fly fishing
- [singular] (British English also flies)an opening down the front of a pair of trousers that fastens with a zip or buttons and is usually covered over by a narrow piece of material
- Your fly is undone!
- Your flies are undone!
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- button
- button
- button up
- do up
- …
- button
- [countable] a piece of material that covers the entrance to a tent see also flies
- (also fly ball)a ball that is hit high into the air see also pop fly
insect
in fishing
on trousers/pants
on tent
in baseball
Word Originnoun senses 3 to 4 Old English flēogan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vliegen and German fliegen, also to fly, the insect. noun senses 1 to 2 Old English flȳge, flēoge, denoting any winged insect, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch vlieg and German Fliege, also to fly (verb).
Idioms
See fly in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee fly in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishdie/fall/drop like flies
- (informal) to die or become ill and fall down in very large numbers
- People were dropping like flies in the intense heat.
a/the fly in the ointment
- a person or thing that makes a situation or an occasion less pleasant, successful, etc.
a fly on the wall
- a person who watches others without being noticed
- I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he tells her the news.
- fly-on-the-wall documentaries (= in which people are filmed going about their normal lives as if the camera were not there)
(there are) no flies on somebody
- (informal) the person mentioned is clever and not easily tricked
not harm/hurt a fly
- to be kind and gentle and unwilling to cause unhappiness
on the fly
- (informal) if you do something on the fly, you do it quickly while something else is happening, and without thinking about it very much
- (computing) while a computer program or application is operating, without completely restarting it
- Now, while I'm on the desktop, I can switch between open apps on the fly.
Check pronunciation:
fly