Word.ws English Dictionary

flies the coop

flies the coop is the third-person singular simple present indicative of fly the coop.

Meaning of fly the coop

Verb

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

  1. (figuratively) To depart hastily or unannounced; to escape or flee.
    • Not liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew the coop.1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 3, in A Texas Ranger
  2. To escape from a pen or similar enclosure.
    • Explained a Curtiz assistant: "We had three ravens in Assisi; one died of cold, and another flew the coop."1961 January 6, “Assisi Revisited”, in Time

Questions about flies the coop

What is flies the coop the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Flies the coop is the third-person singular simple present indicative of fly the coop.

Words near flies the coop in the dictionary

  1. flies on the wall
  2. flies out
  3. flies out of the traps
  4. flies solo
  5. flies the blue pigeon
  6. flies the coop
  7. flies the flag
  8. flies the freak flag
  9. flies the kite
  10. flies the nest
  11. flies too close to the sun

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flies the coop (page history and authors); fly the coop (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “flies the coop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flies_the_coop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.