fley
Americanverb
verb
-
to be afraid or cause to be afraid
-
(tr) to frighten away; scare
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:
“It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that’s a’.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 4 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.
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
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
Let's hope you're a better guide than constable, young man, or, as that old fellow said in the road this morning, we'll fley the bird and not grip him.
From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Sir Hall Caine
‘O I sleep saft, and I wake aft, It’s lang since sleeping was fleyed frae me; Gie my service back to my wyfe and bairns, And a’ gude fellows that speer for me.’
From Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series by Frank Sidgwick
And you look fleyed: there’s nothing here to scare you: We’re quiet folk at Krindlesyke.
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
An' then she was unco fleyed when she found I didna haud wi' the Athanasian creed.
From Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet An Autobiography by Thomas Hughes
I’m fleyed to face The road again, alone.
From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
He wasna easy fleyed, an’ gaed straucht up to the wa’s; an’ what suld he find there but a man, or the appearance o’ a man, sittin’ in the inside upon a grave.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
