aflight

Adjective

aflight (not comparable)

1. Flying.
   • Then, like a rocket set aflight, / She sprang, and streaked it for the light!1874, Ambrose Bierce (as Dod Grile), “The Legend of Immortal Truth” in Cobwebs, London: “Fun” Office, ca. 1884, p. 114
   • The elderly Pollyana of the infant aviation had photographs of their glider of 1902 aflight at Kitty Hawk.1930, John R. McMahon, chapter 8, in The Wright Brothers, Boston: Little, Brown, page 150

   Synonyms:

   in flight

2. Covered or filled (with something flying).
   • curved attics aflight with / angels1965, A. R. Ammons, “Gain”, in Collected Poems, 1951-1971, New York: Norton, page 199
   • In the distance the billabong was white with egrets and aflight with ducks;1967, Elspeth Huxley, chapter 15, in Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey through Australia,, New York: William Morrow, page 311
3. Fleeing.
   • Like shepherdless sheep from wolves aflight1915, Marvin M. Taylor, “The Roll of the War Drums” in Donald Tulloch (ed.), Songs and Poems of the Great World War, Worcester, MA: Davis Press, p. 17
   • The five now aflight from Massacre Canyon would have posses beating the bush for them.1964, Allan Vaughan Elston, chapter 12, in The Landseekers,, Philadelphia: Lippincott, page 121
4. (obsolete) Showing distress, anxiety or other strong emotion.
   • […] when the crosse, and afliction cometh vpon them, their mynde is aflight, it considereth not that the thynges, whiche it suffereth, be the scourges of Goddes wrath,1547, uncredited translator, A Simple, and Religious Consultation by Hermann of Wied, London: John Day, “Of the crosse, and aflictions,”
   • “ […] I dare not leave her without locking the door; for the poor thing is quite aflight, and talks about nothing but guns and swords, and bloody knives, and rapes, and other weapons.”1817, anonymous (attributed to James Athearn Jones), Hardenbrass and Haverill, London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Volume 2, Chapter 1, p. 7

   Synonyms:

   anxious, distressed, moved, troubled, unsettled