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fley

American  
[fley] / fleɪ /

verb

Chiefly Scot.
fleyed, fleying
  1. to frighten; terrify.


fley British  
/ fleɪ /

verb

  1. to be afraid or cause to be afraid

  2. (tr) to frighten away; scare

"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of fley

1175–1225; Middle English flaien, fleien, Old English -flīgan (in ā-flȳgan ); cognate with Old Norse fleygia to cause to fly. Cf. fly 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Waefu' Want and Hunger fley me, Glowrin' by the hallan en'; Sair I fecht them at the door, But aye I'm eerie they come ben.

From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

“It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that’s a’.

From Tales from Blackwood Volume 4 by Various

It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that's a'.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847 by Various

Sigrun asks Helge: Hverir lata fljota fley vid backa, hvar hermegir heima eigud?

From Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 1 of 3 Gods and Goddesses of the Northland by Ph.D.

Have you not reason to waye that whatsoever ether Virgil did write of his gnatt or Ovid of his fley was all covertly to declare abuse?...

From Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism by Donald Lemen Clark

And you look fleyed: there’s nothing here to scare you: We’re quiet folk at Krindlesyke.

From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

He wasna easy fleyed, an' gaed straucht up to the wa's; and what suld he find there but a man, or the appearance of a man, sittin' in the inside upon a grave.

From Stories by English Authors: Scotland (Selected by Scribners) by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

I’m fleyed to face The road again, alone.

From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

He wasnae easy fleyed, an' gaed straucht up to the wa's; and what suld he find there but a man, or the appearance of a man, sittin' in the inside upon a grave.

From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by Joseph Lewis French

Aw'm noan fleyed ov him, but aw met not be able to keep mo howd ov him.

From Stephen Archer and Other Tales by George MacDonald

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