- fly
- fly vb1 Fly, dart, float, skim, scud, shoot, sail are comparable in their extended senses when they mean to pass, or less often to cause to pass, lightly or quickly over a surface or above a surface.Fly (see also ESCAPE 1) may be used to imply movement through or as if through the air that suggests swift passage, buoyancy, or lack of impediments like that of a bird or airplane{
swift fly the years— Pope
}{saw the snowy whirlwind fly— Gray
}{thy loose hair in the light wind flying— Shelley
}{their Oriental robes flapping and their Oriental beards flying in the wind— Forester
}{pushed one's way through the reeds, which flew back into place and revealed nothing— Beebe
}Dart in its extended intransitive sense implies movement that is as suddenly initiated and as straight and as swift in its course as that of an arrow or javelin{hawks regularly beat along the furze, darting on a finch now and then— Jefferies
}{he caught her by the arm as she ran past and . . . without trying to check her, simply darted in with her and up the stairs, causing no end of consternation— Conrad
}{[stars] darting about our galaxy with speeds that range up to 200 miles per second— Merrill
}Float in its extended use implies a buoyant and seemingly effortless gliding through the air or along a smooth or liquid surface{I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills— Wordsworth
}{a bright bird which sings divinely as it floats about from one place to another— L. P. Smith
}Skim in its extended use implies a passing lightly and swiftly over the surface of something, sometimes darting into it, sometimes floating above it; often it suggests a light touching of the surface without real physical or mental penetration{skim through an assignment
}{some lightly o'er the current skim— Gray
}{down the road skims an eave swallow, swift as an arrow— Jeffe ries
}{she had skimmed gracefully over life's surface like a swallow, dipping her pretty wings in the shallows— Rose Macaulay
}{the habit of skimming volumes in bookshops— Times Lit. Sup.
}Scud implies light, rapid movement (as of a hare pursued by hounds, of a sailboat driven over the surface of the water by a high wind, or of clouds driven by an approaching hurricane); often, also, it connotes swiftness so great that the surface is barely touched by the speeding object{the yacht scuds before the wind
}{the scudding rain which drives in gusts over the . . . great shining river— Thackeray
}{crisp foam-flakes scud along the level sand— Tennyson
}{freezing weather that sent the delegates and their briefcases scudding— Panter— Downes
}Shoot differs from dart, its nearest synonym, in throwing less emphasis upon the suddenness of start and, often, in more definitely suggesting continuous or extended movement{the lambent lightnings shoot across the sky— Thomson
}{the automobile shot around the corner
}{a wild idea shot into her mind— Glasgow
}Sail differs from its nearest synonym float in more frequently implying power, ostentation as if of spread sails, or steadiness and directness of course{hope ... set free from earth ... on steady wing sails through the immense abyss— Cowper
}{but who is this? . . . female of sex it seems—that, so bedecked, ornate, and gay, comes this way sailing— Milton
}{held the door for us and we sailed through— Deutschman
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
