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fley

American  
[flay] / 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:

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

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

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

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

‘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

To think I’ve borne a son to a calf that’s fleyed Of a sleeping woman’s back—his minney’s, and all!

From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

Rin, an' fess her here than, for I'm fleyed at yer sister, honest wuman, an' little Phemy.

From The Marquis of Lossie by George MacDonald

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

“Dinna be fleyed, my bonny burdy,” she said, addressing the unbonnetted young lady, who was still apparently dozing in the corner.

From Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 by Herbert Willis

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