take flight

1. Also, take wing. Run away, flee, go away, as in When the militia arrived, the demonstrators took flight, or The tenant took wing before paying the rent. The first idiom derives from the earlier take one's flight, dating from the late 1300s, and was first recorded in 1435. The variant was first recorded in 1704.

Related Words

• abandon 
• depart 
• die 
• die out 
• dissipate 
• dissolve 
• escape 
• evaporate 
• expire 
• fade 
• flee 
• fly 
• go 
• leave 
• melt 
• perish 
• recede 
• retire 
• retreat 
• sink