highflying

or high-fly·ing

[ hahy-flahy-ing ]

adjective

moving upward to or along at a considerable height: highflying planes.
extravagant or extreme in aims, opinions, etc.; unduly lofty: highflying ideas about life.

having a high cost or perceived value: the highflying glamour stocks.

Origin of highflying

First recorded in 1575–85; high + flying

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

How to use highflying in a sentence

High flying and fast, the F-22 Raptor stealth jet is by far the most lethal fighter America has ever built.
Pentagon Worries That Russia Can Now Outshoot U.S. Stealth Jets | Dave Majumdar | December 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
For a high-flying financier gone bad, faking your own death is a tempting escape from legal woes.
First Rule of the Fake Dead Bankers Club: Stay Gone | Daniel Gross | January 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
In August, the SEC made an example of former high-flying hedge fund manager Philip Falcone.
That’ll Be $1.2 Billion, Please | Daniel Gross | November 4, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The once high-flying company, which saw sales fall sharply in 2009, is finding it difficult to mimic its early-stage growth.
Crocs Stock Falls on Critical Research Report | Edward Ferguson | August 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Not from high-flying trading or investment banking, but from a boring, stodgy business: lending money to homeowners.
JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Homeowners Profit With Help From the Fed | Matthew Zeitlin | October 12, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST

By "high-flying parties" one should doubtless understand those who wish to ascend the higher slopes.
Tyrol and its People | Clive Holland
The tumbling habit was gradually bred out of the high-flying birds, and after a time many of them did not tumble at all.
Our Domestic Birds | John H. Robinson
Over autumn woods, in a windy sky, high-flying crows were buffeted and blown about.
The Dark Star | Robert W. Chambers
The Marshal de Broglio was appointed to their command—a high-flying aristocrat, cool, and capable of every thing.
The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Compiled From Family Letters and Reminiscences | Sarah N. Randolph
Not so with poets, orators, and other human professors of the high-flying and cantatory arts.
Days Off | Henry Van Dyke

British Dictionary definitions for high-flying

high-flying

adjective

having great ambition or ability

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

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