Word.ws English Dictionary

fly the flag

fly the flag verb: to be registered in a particular country and display that country's flag as a result. (of a ship, airline etc).

Verb

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

  1. To be registered in a particular country and display that country's flag as a result. (of a ship, airline etc)
  2. (idiomatic) To support one's country enthusiastically.
    • Now they are the English champions, flying the flag for their country in Europe’s premier club competition and managed by a 53‑year‑old who only got the job on Sunday night.2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian

Forms of fly the flag

third-person singular presentflies the flag
present participleflying the flag
pastflew the flag
past participleflown the flag

Questions about fly the flag

What does fly the flag mean?
Fly the flag means to be registered in a particular country and display that country's flag as a result. (of a ship, airline etc).
What part of speech is fly the flag?
Fly the flag is a verb.
What is the past tense of fly the flag?
The past tense of fly the flag is flew the flag.

Words near fly the flag in the dictionary

  1. fly swatters
  2. fly system
  3. fly systems
  4. fly the blue pigeon
  5. fly the coop
  6. fly the flag
  7. fly the freak flag
  8. fly the kite
  9. fly the nest
  10. fly too close to the sun
  11. fly trap

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fly the flag (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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