Word.ws English Dictionary

flew off the handle

flew off the handle is the simple past of fly off the handle.

Meaning of fly off the handle

Verb

fly off the handle (third-person singular simple present flies off the handle, present participle flying off the handle, simple past flew off the handle, past participle flown off the handle)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To become very angry or enraged; to throw a fit or go crazy.
    • My dad flew off the handle when he saw the F grade on my report card.

Questions about flew off the handle

What is flew off the handle the simple past of?
Flew off the handle is the simple past of fly off the handle.

Words near flew off the handle in the dictionary

  1. flew into
  2. flew like a bird
  3. flew low
  4. flew off
  5. flew off at a tangent
  6. flew off the handle
  7. flew off the shelves
  8. flew out
  9. flew out of the traps
  10. flew solo
  11. flew the blue pigeon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flew off the handle (page history and authors); fly off the handle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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