Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for fly-by-night

fly-by-night

[ flahy-bahy-nahyt ]

adjective

  1. not reliable or responsible, especially in business; untrustworthy:

    a fly-by-night operation.

  2. not lasting; brief; impermanent; transitory:

    a fly-by-night theater.



noun

  1. a person or thing that is unreliable, especially a debtor who evades or attempts to evade creditors.
  2. a person regarded as a poor credit risk.

fly-by-night

adjective

  1. unreliable or untrustworthy, esp in finance
  2. brief; impermanent
“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


noun

  1. an untrustworthy person, esp one who departs secretly or by night to avoid paying debts
  2. a person who goes out at night to places of entertainment
“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

fly-by-night

  1. Shady or untrustworthy: “Before buying stock in a newly formed company, the prudent investor will check its owners' credentials to make sure it's not a fly-by-night operation.”


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of fly-by-night1

First recorded in 1790–1800
Discover More

Example Sentences

Some of the groups have been around for decades, others are fly-by-night.

And not fly-by-night issues either, but stalwarts such as G.E., Citi, Google.

What gets me is, when you boil our two fly-by-night stories down, I've come here to be alone.

She now knew where she was, but was nearly dying from the exhaustion of his fly-by-night expeditions.

Throughout the country local managers began to steal the Madison Square plays and put them on with "fly-by-night" companies.

Theres hundreds of these little fly-by-night mining camps in this here Western country.

Shown up in our newspapers as a ditch-digger—a fly-by-night—a nobody!

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


fly-by-lightfly-by-wire