What does "flight" mean?
Flight: The act of fleeing; the act of running away, to escape or expected evil; hasty departure. Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. Matt. xxiv.
Additional senses
- 2.Fain by flight to save themselves. Shak.
- 3.Lofty elevation and excursion;a mounting; a soaas, a flight of imagination, ambition, folly. Could he have kept his spirit to that flight, He had been happy. Byron. His highest flights were indeed far below those of Taylor. Macaulay.
- 4.A number of beings or things passing through the air together; especially, a flock of birds flying in company; the birds that fly or migrate together; the birds produced in one season; as, a flight of arrows. Swift. Swift flights of angels ministrant. Milton. Like a flight of fowl Scattered winds and tempestuous gusts. Shak.
- 5.A series of steps or stairs from one landing to another. Parker.
- 6.A kind of arrow for the longbow; also, the sport of shooting with it. See Shaft. [Obs.] Challenged Cupid at the flight. Shak. Not a flight drawn home E'er made that haste that they have. Beau. & Fl.
- 7.The husk or glume of oats. [Prov. Eng.] Wright. to take a flight{9}. Flight feathers (Zoöl.), the wing feathers of a bird, including the quills, coverts, and bastard wing. See Bird. -- To put to flight, To turn to flight, to compel to run away; to force to flee; to rout. See Pair.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00