dry fly

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noun Angling.

an artificial fly designed for use on the surface of the water.

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Origin of dry fly

First recorded in 1840–50

Words nearby dry fly

dryer, dry eye, dry-eyed, dry-farm, dry farming, dry fly, dry fog, dry-footing, dry freeze, dry gangrene, Drygas

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use dry fly in a sentence

I must not forget to mention dry-fly fishing, which is particularly suitable for women.
The Sportswoman's Library, v. 2|Various
There was none could coax a trout from a glass-clear pool with a dry fly like Alan Campbell.
The Wind Bloweth|Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne
Outside a dry-fly rasped the brooding silence up and down with its fret-saw refrain.
Back Home|Irvin S. Cobb
But none of the old anglers, to my knowledge, was a dry-fly fisher, and Izaak was no fly-fisher at all.
Andrew Lang's Introduction to The Compleat Angler|Andrew Lang

Our ancestors, though they did not fish with the dry fly, were intent on imitating the insect on the water.
Andrew Lang's Introduction to The Compleat Angler|Andrew Lang

British Dictionary definitions for dry fly

dry fly

noun

angling

an artificial fly designed and prepared to be floated or skimmed on the surface of the water
(as modifier)dry-fly fishing

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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012