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flight

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *plew-
Proto-Indo-European *plewk-
Proto-Indo-European *-eti
Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi
Proto-Germanic *fleuganą
Proto-West Germanic *fleugan
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Germanic *-þiz
Proto-West Germanic *-þi
Proto-West Germanic *fluhti
Old English flyht
Middle English flight
English flight
    A Mikoyan MiG-17F jet in flight
    A flight of stairs.

    From Middle English flight, from Old English flyht (“flight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti (“flight”), derived from *fleuganą (“to fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”), enlargement of *plew- (“flow”). Analyzable as fly +‎ -t (variant of -th).

    Cognate with West Frisian flecht (“flight”), Dutch vlucht (“flight”), German Flucht (“flight”) (etymology 2).

    Noun

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    flight (countable and uncountable, plural flights)

    1. The act of flying; the ability to fly.
      Most birds are capable of flight.
      Bats are born with the instinct of flight.
      1. An instance of flying.
        The migrating birds' flight took them to Africa.
      2. The trajectory or passage through air or space of a projectile, ship, etc.
        The space shuttle's flight was carefully calculated long before takeoff.
      3. A swift movement, especially as to escape; an escape.
        The lizard's immediate flight when startled makes it hard to catch.
        The judge thought she was a flight risk.
      4. A trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.
        The flight to Paris leaves at 7 o'clock tonight.
        Where is the departure gate for flight 747? / Go straight down and to the right.
        He is taking the 5 o' clock flight to London in the morning.
        1. The aircraft used in a journey through air or space.
          He boarded the flight to Miami.
      5. (cricket) The movement of a spinning ball through the air from the bowler to where it bounces on the pitch.
      6. (figurative) An episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.
        a flight of fancy; a flight of the imagination
    2. A surface that aids in an item's purpose
      1. The feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.
        • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 164:
          Baſſ. In my ſchoole dayes, when I had loſt one ſhaft / I ſhot his fellow of the ſelfeſame flight / The ſelfeſame way, with more aduiſed watch / To finde the other forth, and by aduenturing both, / I oft found both. I vrge this child-hoode proofe, […]
      2. An aerodynamic surface designed to guide a projectile's trajectory.
      3. (engineering) The shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
    3. A thing that flies or moves as if in flight
      1. (collective, military, air force) An air force unit, ranked below a squadron, comprising several planes and their crews.
      2. (US, naval) A numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
      3. (collective) A group of birds, especially doves (pigeons), goshawks or swallows.
        a flight of swallows
        Synonym: flock
        • 1901, J. W. Willis-Bund and H. Arthur Doubleday, editor, A History of Worcestershire‎[1], page 160:
          The latest note I have of the hobby waiting on the swallows is dated the 7th of September, 1893, when one appeared near the mill on the Avon at Harvington, where a small flight of swallows had gathered.
        • 1899 May 20, J. S. Van Cleef, “The Wild Pigeons”, in Forest and Stream‎[2], volume 52, Forest and Stream Publishing Company, page 885:
          he claimed that there was a flight of wild pigeons in this county in 1895. I have been quite familiar with the game and fish of this county for nearly or quite fifty years, and during all that time I have never heard or known of a flight of wild pigeons in this county.
        • 1912, Edward Howe Forbush, Herbert Keightley Job, A History of the Game Birds, Wild-fowl and Shore Birds of Massachusetts and Adjacent States‎[3], Wright & Potter Printing Company, page 381:
          During the winter of 1906-07 a great flight of Goshawks appeared in the northern and eastern States.
        • 1919 November, “Church Spires”, in Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review‎[4], volume 102, page 851:
          I look forward to seeing it as I gaze at a flight of doves whitebreasted, white-winged, swift of flight against the fury of a gale.
      4. (collective) A group of angels or types of angels, e.g., seraphim, cherubim.
        The central figure in the painting is a young woman, surrounded by a flight of angels.
        • 1904, Max Rooses, Rubens‎[5], volume 2, Duckworth & Company, page 431:
          The horses chafing at the bit and pawing the ground with pride, the flight of angels round the young woman symbolizing Faith, the Spirit riding one of the horses and carrying the pontifical keys, Faith with her inspired gesture and the life-like attitudes of the vanquished, all combine to form a group incomparably rich and animated, a veritable triumphal procession marching onward, overpowering, irresistible.
          describes Paul Rubens's The Triumph of the Eucharist over Ignorance and Blindness
        • 1893, Charles Godfrey Leland, “Florentine Pictures”, in Pall Mall Magazine‎[6], page 227:
          It is one of those sunset visions of a flock of lamb-like, living saints, a flight of cherubim, a swarm of seraphim in golden glory, a clustered covey of rainbow-polychromed, peacock-winged angels, and a rapture of all the beatitudes-four saints, two angels, and the Madonna
        • 1915, The Poetry Review, “Mysticism in Verse”, in The Living Age‎[7], volume 286, Littell, Son and Company, page 425:
          To him the lightning was the sigh of an angel king and the sun was a flight of seraphim.
        • 1915 April, Eugene B. Hagar, “Annual Meeting, April 1915”, in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society‎[8], Massachusetts Historical Society, page 361:
          One of these busts was of Cherubini. Projecting from the wall, and under the shelf of the bracket supporting this bust, was a flight of angels. And this was the origin of the flight of angels that constitutes the principal feature of the oval device upon the medal.
      5. A paper airplane. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    4. A segment of a whole
      1. A series of stairs between landings.
        • 1958 May, W. J. South and L. Hyland, “Limerick as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 297:
          Limerick terminus has changed but little since its opening, and travellers still ascend the same flight of steps from the forecourt to enter the handsome two-storey stone building, which contains the offices and a recently-modernised refreshment room.
        • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84:
          She crept up the stairs [...] On she went, across the landing, from which sprang the tall window, and up the next flight until she reached the top.
      2. A floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.
        How many flights up is it?
      3. A level of a terrace; a series of such levels making up a terrace.
        I'll start on the lowest flight of the terrace, you start at the top.
        The flight of terraces extended up fifty meters from the base.
      4. A group of canal locks with a short distance between them
      5. (sports) A group of competitors, divided by ability or other factors.
        The competing sprinters were divided into several flights.
    5. Several sample glasses (usually three to five) of a specific wine varietal or other variations in wine, each sample comprising a smaller amount than a full glass of wine.
      1. (by extension) A comparable sample of beers or other drinks.
      2. (by extension) A series of small dishes of food united by a purpose, category, etc.
        a flight of canapés, a flight of sliders
    6. (advertising, broadcasting) An advertising campaign of fixed length.
      • 2006, Pat Fallon, Fred Senn, Juicing the Orange, page 34:
        After the first eight-week flight of advertising, the tracking research showed that consumers' predisposition to use Citi as a financial services provider jumped 50 percent.
    Hyponyms
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    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Adjective

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    flight (comparative more flight, superlative most flight)

    1. (obsolete) Fast, swift, fleet.

    Verb

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    flight (third-person singular simple present flights, present participle flighting, simple past and past participle flighted)

    1. (cricket, of a spin bowler) To throw the ball in such a way that it has more airtime and more spin than usual.
    2. (sports, by extension, transitive) To throw or kick something so as to send it flying with more loft or airtime than usual.
      • 2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian‎[9]:
        Riyad Mahrez flighted the free-kick that followed to the far post and Morgan, with not much finesse but plenty of desire, bundled the ball over the line. Cue pandemonium in the stands.

    See also

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    Appendix:English collective nouns

    Etymology 2

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    From Middle English, from Old English flyht, from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti, derived from *fleuhaną (“to flee”). Analyzable as flee +‎ -t (variant of -th). Cognate with Dutch vlucht, German Flucht (etymology 1).

    Noun

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    flight (countable and uncountable, plural flights)

    1. The act of fleeing.
      take flight
      the flight of a refugee
      • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:
        Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,
        Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
        And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
        The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.
      • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
        But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Middle English

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *plew-
    Proto-Indo-European *plewk-
    Proto-Indo-European *-eti
    Proto-Indo-European *pléwketi
    Proto-Germanic *fleuganą
    Proto-West Germanic *fleugan
    Proto-Indo-European *-tis
    Proto-Germanic *-þiz
    Proto-West Germanic *-þi
    Proto-West Germanic *fluhti
    Old English flyht
    Middle English flight

      Inherited from Old English flyht.

      Noun

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      flight (plural flights)

      1. flight (act of flying)

      Descendants

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      • English: flight
      • Scots: flycht, flicht

      Swedish

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      Etymology

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      Borrowed from English flight. Attested since 1967.

      Noun

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      flight c

      1. a flight ((regular) trip made by a passenger aircraft)

      Declension

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      Declension of flight
      nominative genitive
      singular indefinite flight flights
      definite flighten flightens
      plural indefinite flighter flighters
      definite flighterna flighternas

      See also

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      References

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