Word.ws English Dictionary

fly too close to the sun

fly too close to the sun verb: to become overly ambitious or greedy; to overreach oneself; to reach for something unattainable or unachievable.

Verb

fly too close to the sun (third-person singular simple present flies too close to the sun, present participle flying too close to the sun, simple past flew too close to the sun, past participle flown too close to the sun)

  1. (idiomatic) To become overly ambitious or greedy; to overreach oneself; to reach for something unattainable or unachievable.
    • Did Jackson fly too close to the sun? Should he have followed the Royals' advice -- the Royals' pleading, really -- that he play only baseball?1991 March 19, Thomas Boswell, “BO LEARNS DISAPPOINTMENT”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026
    • Descalzi's friends at Telemundo worry that he is taking on too much, accelerating too quickly. They know he can fly too close to the sun -- and plunge into self-destructive indulgence.1996 March 3, Pamela Constable, “BACK TO YOU, GUILLERMO”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026

Forms of fly too close to the sun

third-person singular presentflies too close to the sun
present participleflying too close to the sun
pastflew too close to the sun
past participleflown too close to the sun

Origin of fly too close to the sun

In reference to the Greek myth of Icarus, who fell into the sea and drowned after flying too close to the sun on wings made of wax and feathers, despite having been warned by his father, Daedalus, who gave him the wings.

Words formed from fly too close to the sun

Questions about fly too close to the sun

What does fly too close to the sun mean?
Fly too close to the sun means to become overly ambitious or greedy; to overreach oneself; to reach for something unattainable or unachievable.
What part of speech is fly too close to the sun?
Fly too close to the sun is a verb.
What is the past tense of fly too close to the sun?
The past tense of fly too close to the sun is flew too close to the sun.

Words near fly too close to the sun in the dictionary

  1. fly the coop
  2. fly the flag
  3. fly the freak flag
  4. fly the kite
  5. fly the nest
  6. fly too close to the sun
  7. fly trap
  8. fly traps
  9. fly under the radar
  10. fly up
  11. fly upon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fly too close to the sun (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-fly too close to the sun.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fly too close to the sun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fly_too_close_to_the_sun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.