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Fly by   /flaɪ baɪ/   Listen
Fly by

verb
1.
Pass by while flying.
2.
Move by very quickly.  Synonyms: whisk by, zip by.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Fly by" Quotes from Famous Books



... two-winged flies, as agents in spreading disease, it surely follows that man should wage war against them in a much more systematic and consistent manner than at present. The destruction of the common house-fly by "papier Moure," by decoctions of quassia, by various traps, and by the so-called "catch 'em alive," is tried here and there, now and then, by some grocer, confectioner, or housewife angry at the spoliation ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 303 - October 22, 1881 • Various

... snow-line; we saw far beneath us a wide, green valley, where other people, the size of flies, were safe if not happy. We passed some barracks, where a lot of sturdy little mountain soldiers stopped bowling balls in a dull, stony square to watch us fly by. We frightened some mules; we almost made a horse faint away; but the Chauffeulier showed no desire to stop and let them admire our "bonnet" ...
— My Friend the Chauffeur • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... fly by like minutes," continues Nancy, stopping by the side window and twirling the curtain tassel absently. "I scan the surrounding country to see if anything compares with Beulah, and nothing does. No such river, no such ...
— Mother Carey's Chickens • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... Birds fly by a flapping movement of their wings, or by soaring. We are quite familiar with both these actions: at one time the bird propels itself by means of powerful muscles attached to its wings by means of which the wings are flapped up and down; at another time the bird, with wings nicely adjusted ...
— The Mastery of the Air • William J. Claxton

... circumstance with him to have hundreds of pounds, in pay and prize-money, to his credit at his bankers, the Navy Pay-Office; and though during a voyage he earned his money as hardly as a horse, and was as poor as a church mouse, yet the moment he stepped ashore he made it fly by the handful and squandered it, as the saying went, like an ass. When he was sober, which was seldom enough provided he could obtain drink, he possessed scarcely a rag to his back; but when he was drunk he was himself the first to acknowledge ...
— The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore • John R. Hutchinson

... day Policeman Blue Jay hid himself in some thick bushes until he saw the big white bird fly by, and then he followed quietly after it, flitting from tree to tree and keeping out of sight as much as possible, until at last he saw the white bird alight near a bullfinch's nest and eat up all the eggs ...
— Twinkle and Chubbins - Their Astonishing Adventures in Nature-Fairyland • L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

... around the earth, ever mistaking the shadow for the substance, until they have imitated the very thunder and lightning, calling them cannon; they have imitated all the forces of the universe and called them steam, gasoline, electricity, chemistry and what not, so that now they fly by machinery, who once could fly ...
— Caves of Terror • Talbot Mundy

... for I hold that is a great protection; when I heard a strange whistling noise, with a murmur in it, high up overhead in the night. 'It is the birds going south,' I said to myself, for you know that great flocks fly by night when the cold begins to set in; but the sound grew louder and more distinct, and at last I could hear the sound as of words gabbled in a foreign tongue; and I knew they were no birds, though maybe they had wings like them. But I knew that a Christened soul in grace has ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

... meet Jesus and all that to me, and now she ain't a-going to die, and drinks half a bottle of champagne a day, and then Grigg, him as preaches, you know, asked Bell if I really was too gay, not but what when I was young I'd snap my fingers at any 'fly by night' in Holborn, and if I was togged out and had my teeth I'd do it now. I lost my poor dear Watkins, but of course that couldn't be helped, and then I lost my dear Rose. Silly faggot to go and ride on a cart and catch the bronchitics. I never thought when I kissed my dear Rose in Pullen's Passage ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... watched the Louisiana plantations, lakes, and bayous fly by in sunshine and shadow; or she read a novel of the South as it had been in old days. It was an interesting story and held her attention so closely that she was late in going to dinner. When at last she went there was only one chair left, at ...
— The Port of Adventure • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... also the time-honored ceremony of her crew throwing their hats overboard with the last cheer. This corresponded to the breaking of glasses after a favorite toast, or to the bursts of enthusiasm in a Spanish bull-ring, where Andalusian caps fly by dozens into the arena. There, however, the bull-fighter returns them, with many bows; but those of the homeward-bounders become the inheritance of the boatmen of the port. The midshipman of the watch being stationed on the forecastle, my intimates among the crew were the staid seamen, ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... then, start! Fly by faith up from globe to globe, soar through space! Thought, love, and faith are its mystical keys. Traverse the circles, reach the throne! God is more merciful than you are; He opens His temple to all His creatures. Only, ...
— The Exiles • Honore de Balzac

... a large group that are called Scale-wings, because they alone among insects, have scales or tiny feathers like dust on the wings. Butterflies are Scale-wings that fly by day, and have club-shaped feelers; they mostly fold one wing against the other when they alight, and in the chrysalis, or bundle-baby stage, they are naked and ...
— Woodland Tales • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... to talk with somebody, in order that time might fly by with greater rapidity, beguiling his uneasy wait. She would not return to the hotel until very late.... And he therefore retired to his room earlier than usual, believing with illogical superstition that by so ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... temporal affairs, but dull in spiritual matters. The gull, which both flies in the air and swims in the water, signifies those who are partial both to Circumcision and to Baptism: or else it denotes those who would fly by contemplation, yet dwell in the waters of sensual delights. The hawk, which helps men to seize the prey, is a figure of those who assist the strong to prey on the poor. The screech-owl, which seeks its food by night but hides by ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... seemed very long to him. He used to remain sitting for whole days, as long as he had the same motionless objects before his eyes, but he found it very trying and fatiguing to remain sitting while he was being whirled along, and to see the whole country fly by, ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... Ten years more fly by, in which there is a splendid record of services and rescues to the credit of Coxswain Fish, the Ramsgate lifeboatmen, and the brave steam-tugs, Vulcan and Aid, and we come to the night of Jan. 5 and 6, 1891, which is exactly, my readers ...
— Heroes of the Goodwin Sands • Thomas Stanley Treanor

... shoulders, and rise again to the hair, and again steal over the face, to the strong shoulders, and again hurry back to the face lest some feature fade. This is not staring—it is done so quickly, so furtively, so deftly withal as the minutes fly by, while the lips and the teeth chatter on, that the stolen honey of these glances is stored away in the heart's memory, all unknown to him who has ...
— A Certain Rich Man • William Allen White

... to take very good care of themselves, for I have always found them very difficult to get a shot at, and very few make their appearance in the market. Though generally a winter visitant, I have seen occasional stragglers in summer. On the 9th July this year (1878), for instance, I saw one fly by me in L'Ancresse Bay; this was either a young bird, or, if an adult, was not in breeding plumage, as I could clearly see that the throat was white—- not black, as in the adult in breeding plumage. A few days afterwards, July 19th, another—or, ...
— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith

... surface on which the sledge ran, and the miles commenced to fly by, comparatively speaking. Except for an occasional deep rift, whose bottom plumbed to the sea-water, the going was excellent. Each day the broken ice on our left receded, the mainland to the south grew closer and traces of rock became discernible ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson

... virtually include both sexes; as, "Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible."—Job, xxxix, 19. "Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?"—Ib., ver. 26. These were called, by the old grammarians, epicene nouns—that is, supercommon; but they are to be parsed each according ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... scurried about the room hither and thither, doing, or pretending to do many things; then, saying something about seeing her mother, ran upstairs. Eleanor was thus left alone with Bertie, and she hardly felt an hour fly by her. To give Bertie his due credit, he could not have played his cards better. He did not make love to her, nor sigh, nor look languishing, but he was amusing and familiar, yet respectful; and when he left Eleanor at her own door at one o'clock, ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... divine goodness, that is why I don't lose courage. Whoever lives under His protection will find repose in the mercy of the Omnipotent One. He will cover thee with His wings. Under their shelter thou wilt be in safety. His truth will be thy shield, thou wilt fear neither the arrows that fly by night; nor the pestilence that wastes by day! I cannot express how deeply I am moved and how grateful I am for God's ...
— Marie Bashkirtseff (From Childhood to Girlhood) • Marie Bashkirtseff

... about the room hither and thither, doing, or pretending to do many things; and then saying something about seeing her mother, ran up stairs. Eleanor was then left alone with Bertie, and she hardly felt and hour fly by her. To give Bertie his due credit, he could not have played his cards better. He did not make love to her, nor sigh, nor look languishing; but he was amusing and familiar, yet respectful; and when he left Eleanor at her own door at one o'clock, which he did by the bye with the assistance of the ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... was startled into an attempt to fly by hearing the stealthy footsteps of Mr. Fox behind him. His head was drawn back on his shoulders at the time, and he was so excited that he forgot to straighten it out. Just imagine how surprised he was, and how surprised Mr. Fox was, when he sailed away in beautiful flight, his long ...
— Mother West Wind "How" Stories • Thornton W. Burgess

... months and Christmas will be here; and, after Christmas is turned, the weeks till February the 12th—the second anniversary of Theophil's coming to New Zion—will fly by in no time. ...
— The Romance of Zion Chapel [3d ed.] • Richard Le Gallienne

... kitty—I've found her," said auntie, suddenly seizing Fly by the shoulders, and stopping her mocking-bird mouth. "Poor pussy, she has ...
— Little Folks Astray • Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)

... advised,' a gentleman beside her said after a delicate pause to let her impulsive naturalism of utterance fly by unwounded. ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... excitement, and left off play for a while to question their friends; and they were not pleased with what they learned, for it seemed that all of them were to make a journey that would last many days, and the little Kinglets were actually going as far as the Gulf of Mexico. Besides, they were to fly by night in order to avoid their enemies the Hawks, and the weather at this season was sure to be stormy. So the Chickadees said it was all nonsense, and went off in a band, singing and chasing one another through ...
— Johnny Bear - And Other Stories From Lives of the Hunted • E. T. Seton

... a seabird which goes inland at night just as the light wanes. The natives light a bright fire, behind which they sit, each armed with a long stick. The titis, attracted by the light, fly by in great numbers, and are knocked down as quickly as possible; thus in one night several hundreds are often killed, which they preserve in their own fat ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... green worm here in the orchard. In the beech woods they can find a forest worm that is riddling the leaves of the beeches. The robins are there in force and I hope the cuckoos will join them in the destruction of the worms. It is interesting to see the cuckoo fly by several times a day with a big green worm in its beak. Inefficient as it seems, here it is doing things. It is like seeing a monk at the plough-handle. It is a solemn creature; ...
— Under the Maples • John Burroughs



Words linked to "Fly by" :   whisk by, surpass, pass, go past, travel by, pass by, go by



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