flight

plural flights

1. countableuncountableThe act of flying; the ability to fly.

   Most birds are capable of flight.

   1 more example

   Bats are born with the instinct of flight.

   1. countableuncountableAn instance of flying.

      The migrating birds' flight took them to Africa.

   2. countableuncountableThe trajectory or passage through air or space of a projectile, ship, etc.

      The space shuttle's flight was carefully calculated long before takeoff.

   3. countableuncountableA swift movement, especially as to escape; an escape.

      The judge thought she was a flight risk.

      1 more example

      The lizard's immediate flight when startled makes it hard to catch.

   4. countableuncountableA trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.

      The flight to Paris leaves at 7 o'clock tonight.

      2 more examples

      Where is the departure gate for flight 747? / Go straight down and to the right.

      He is taking the 5 o' clock flight to London in the morning.

   5. countableuncountableThe aircraft used in a journey through air or space.

      He boarded the flight to Miami.

   6. countableuncountableball gamesThe movement of a spinning ball through the air from the bowler to where it bounces on the pitch.
   7. countablefigurativelyuncountableAn episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.

      a flight of fancy; a flight of the imagination

2. A surface that aids in an item's purpose
   1. countableuncountableThe feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.

      Baſſ. In my ſchoole dayes, when I had loſt one ſhaft / I ſhot his fellow of the ſelfeſame flight / The ſelfeſame way, with more aduiſed watch / To finde the other forth, and by aduenturing both, / I oft found both. I vrge this child-hoode proofe, […]

      c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 164

   2. countableuncountableAn aerodynamic surface designed to guide a projectile's trajectory.
   3. countableuncountableengineeringThe shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
3. A thing that flies or moves as if in flight
   1. collectivecountableuncountableair forcegovernmentAn air force unit, ranked below a squadron, comprising several planes and their crews.
   2. UScountableuncountablegovernmentA numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
   3. collectivecountableuncountableA group of birds, especially doves (pigeons), goshawks or swallows.

      a flight of swallows

      4 more examples

      The latest note I have of the hobby waiting on the swallows is dated the 7th of September, 1893, when one appeared near the mill on the Avon at Harvington, where a small flight of swallows had gathered.

      1901, J. W. Willis-Bund and H. Arthur Doubleday, editor, A History of Worcestershire, page 160

      he claimed that there was a flight of wild pigeons in this county in 1895. I have been quite familiar with the game and fish of this county for nearly or quite fifty years, and during all that time I have never heard or known of a flight of wild pigeons in this county.

      1899 May 20, J. S. Van Cleef, “The Wild Pigeons”, in Forest and Stream, volume 52, Forest and Stream Publishing Company, page 885

      During the winter of 1906-07 a great flight of Goshawks appeared in the northern and eastern States.

      1912, Edward Howe Forbush, Herbert Keightley Job, A History of the Game Birds, Wild-fowl and Shore Birds of Massachusetts and Adjacent States, Wright & Potter Printing Company, page 381

      I look forward to seeing it as I gaze at a flight of doves whitebreasted, white-winged, swift of flight against the fury of a gale.

      1919 November, “Church Spires”, in Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review, volume 102, page 851

      Synonyms: flock

   4. collectivecountableuncountableA group of angels or types of angels, e.g., seraphim, cherubim.

      The central figure in the painting is a young woman, surrounded by a flight of angels.

      4 more examples

      The horses chafing at the bit and pawing the ground with pride, the flight of angels round the young woman symbolizing Faith, the Spirit riding one of the horses and carrying the pontifical keys, Faith with her inspired gesture and the life-like attitudes of the vanquished, all combine to form a group incomparably rich and animated, a veritable triumphal procession marching onward, overpowering, irresistible.

      1904, Max Rooses, Rubens, volume 2, Duckworth & Company, page 431

      It is one of those sunset visions of a flock of lamb-like, living saints, a flight of cherubim, a swarm of seraphim in golden glory, a clustered covey of rainbow-polychromed, peacock-winged angels, and a rapture of all the beatitudes-four saints, two angels, and the Madonna

      1893, Charles Godfrey Leland, “Florentine Pictures”, in Pall Mall Magazine, page 227

      To him the lightning was the sigh of an angel king and the sun was a flight of seraphim.

      1915, The Poetry Review, “Mysticism in Verse”, in The Living Age, volume 286, Littell, Son and Company, page 425

      One of these busts was of Cherubini. Projecting from the wall, and under the shelf of the bracket supporting this bust, was a flight of angels. And this was the origin of the flight of angels that constitutes the principal feature of the oval device upon the medal.

      1915 April, Eugene B. Hagar, “Annual Meeting, April 1915”, in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, page 361

   5. countableuncountableA paper airplane.
4. A segment of a whole
   1. countableuncountableA series of stairs between landings.

      She crept up the stairs [...] On she went, across the landing, from which sprang the tall window, and up the next flight until she reached the top.

      1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84

      1 more example

      Limerick terminus has changed but little since its opening, and travellers still ascend the same flight of steps from the forecourt to enter the handsome two-storey stone building, which contains the offices and a recently-modernised refreshment room.

      1958 May 28, W. J. South and L. Hyland, “Limerick as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 297

   2. countableuncountableA floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.

      How many flights up is it?

   3. countableuncountableA level of a terrace; a series of such levels making up a terrace.

      The flight of terraces extended up fifty meters from the base.

      1 more example

      I'll start on the lowest flight of the terrace, you start at the top.

   4. countableuncountableA group of canal locks with a short distance between them
   5. countableuncountablehobbiesA group of competitors, divided by ability or other factors.

      The competing sprinters were divided into several flights.

5. Several sample glasses (usually three to five) of a specific wine varietal or other variations in wine, each sample comprising a smaller amount than a full glass of wine.
   1. broadlycountableuncountableA comparable sample of beers or other drinks.
   2. broadlycountableuncountableA series of small dishes of food united by a purpose, category, etc.

      a flight of canapés, a flight of sliders

6. countableuncountableadvertisingAn advertising campaign of fixed length.

   After the first eight-week flight of advertising, the tracking research showed that consumers' predisposition to use Citi as a financial services provider jumped 50 percent.

   2006, Pat Fallon, Fred Senn, Juicing the Orange, page 34

comparative more flight · superlative most flight

1. obsoleteFast, swift, fleet.

present singular third person flights · participle present flighting · participle past flighted · past flighted

1. ball gamesTo throw the ball in such a way that it has more airtime and more spin than usual.
2. broadlytransitivehobbiesTo throw or kick something so as to send it flying with more loft or airtime than usual.

   Riyad Mahrez flighted the free-kick that followed to the far post and Morgan, with not much finesse but plenty of desire, bundled the ball over the line. Cue pandemonium in the stands.

   2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian

plural flights

1. countableuncountableThe act of fleeing.

   take flight

   3 more examples

   the flight of a refugee

   Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night, Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.

   1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1

   But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide