Word.ws English Dictionary

flying the coop

flying the coop is the present participle and gerund 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 flying the coop

What is flying the coop the present participle and gerund of?
Flying the coop is the present participle and gerund of fly the coop.

Words near flying the coop in the dictionary

  1. flying start
  2. flying starts
  3. flying stationer
  4. flying stationers
  5. flying the blue pigeon
  6. flying the coop
  7. flying the flag
  8. flying the kite
  9. flying the nest
  10. flying toilet
  11. flying toilets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flying 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.

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