Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use fly in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, adjective

Fly means any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies. Example: “Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.”

Examples of fly by meaning

nounEspecially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include...

  • A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  • The flies and mosquitoes that come with the oppressive summer heat haven’t arrived yet.2019 October 24, Dennis Webster, “'An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming”, in The Guardian, archived from the...

verbTo travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.

  • Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.
  • The probe flew beyond the solar system.
  • The Concorde flew from Paris to New York faster than any other passenger airplane.

verbTo take a flight on a plane; to pilot or crew a plane.

  • My airline needs me to get clearance before I can fly again.
  • If we want to fly today, we need to leave for the airport right now.

verbTo be in the winged adult stage.

  • This species flies from late summer until frost.

verbTo be accepted, come about or work out.

  • Let's see if that idea flies.
  • You know, I just don't think that's going to fly. Why don't you spend your time on something better?

verbTo cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.

  • Charles Lindbergh flew his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic ocean.
  • Birds fly their prey to their nest to feed it to their young.
  • Each day the postal service flies thousands of letters around the globe.

verbTo arrange for someone to take a flight.

  • We flew the kids out to see their grandparents.

verbTo pilot a plane over a region or on a route.

  • This is the first time I flew the Pacific.
  • I'm hoping to fly the London-New York route so I can see the Big Apple again.

More sentences with fly

  • These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them.From the entry bug
  • I used to fly business class, but now my company can only afford economy.From the entry class
  • She couldn't hurt a fly, young slip of a girl that she is.From the entry slip
  • Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here.From the entry worm
  • Having flies in your bedroom when you're trying to sleep is really annoying.From the entry annoying
  • The cattle have been overing all day because of the flies.From the entry over
  • He wondered whether penguins could fly. She had wondered this herself sometimes.From the entry wonder
  • Although the birds fly north for the summer, they return here in winter.From the entry return
  • A trim runaway can make an airplane almost impossible to fly.From the entry runaway
  • One could scarcely expect the man to know how to fly a helicopter.From the entry scarcely
  • He hit a long fly ball to the outfield in the gap to left.From the entry outfield
  • The software program has a table of values for some results, but calculates others on the fly.From the entry on the fly
  • The new design is very edgy and certainly flies in the face of tradition.From the entry fly in the face of
  • Fly ball to deep center. Shelby goes back and makes the catch on the warning track.From the entry warning track
  • I can never fly my fighter again. It is tango uniform.From the entry tango uniform
  • Always check if you've zipped up your fly before you go out.From the entry zip up
  • He would often fly into an unexpected rage without rhyme or reason.From the entry rhyme or reason
  • I had to fly a planeful of recruits to the army base.From the entry planeful
  • You'd better close your mouth; are you trying to catch flies?From the entry catch flies
  • "I'm sure he'll pay you back tomorrow." "Yeah right, and pigs might fly."From the entry pigs might fly
  • If the wings aren't big enough, your paper airplane will fly like a rock.From the entry fly like a rock
  • She was furious and let fly at him with a string of obscenities.From the entry let fly
  • Possibly derived from the Italian name of the game: Mosca cieca, which literally means "blind fly".From the entry blind-fly
  • Waiter! There's a fly in my soup!From the entry in

Meaning of fly

  1. noun Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
  2. noun Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
  3. noun Those or any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.

Full definition of fly

Questions about fly in a sentence

How do you use fly in a sentence?
Fly is used as a noun, verb and adjective. For example: “Birds of passage fly to warmer regions as it gets colder in winter.”
What is a short sentence with fly?
“Let's see if that idea flies.”
What does fly mean?
Fly means any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use fly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/fly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.