fly

fly is part of the Basic English 850.

Pronunciation

• enPR: flī
• IPA: /flaɪ/
• SAMPA: /flaI/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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Verb

Plain form fly

Third-person singular flies

Past tense flew

Past participle flown

Present participle flying

1. (transitive & intransitive) To move through the air without touching the ground

   The bird will fly away in the winter.

   The airplane flies very high in the air.

   He was the first person to fly a plane around the world.

Noun

Singular fly

Plural flies

A fly on a leaf

1. (countable) A fly is a type of small insect with wings

   I won't eat my soup because there's a fly in it.

   There are many flies near the garbage.

2. In baseball a ball that goes high in the air.
3. The piece of cloth hiding the zipper, buttons at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, or underpants.