| 释义 |
▪ I. flyer, flier|ˈflaɪə(r)|
Forms: 5 flyare, 6 Sc. fliear, 9 dial. fleer, 5– flier, 6– flyer.
[f. fly v.1 + -er1. The forms flyer, flier are both in good mod. use; in our recent quots. flyer is more common, notwithstanding the analogy of crier, drier, trier.]
1. a. A living thing (e.g. a bird or insect) that propels itself with wings; often preceded by some qualifying adj., as high, etc.
c1440Promp. Parv. 167/1 Flyare, volator. 1556J. Heywood Spider & F. lx. 35 A creper with spiders, and a flier with flise. 1686W. de Britaine Hum. Prud. vi. 27 Those of the Weakest Wing are commonly the highest Flyers. 1732Law Serious C. xi. 168 Suppose a man..studying night and day how to fly..where-ever you see an ambitious man, there you see this vain and senseless Flyer. 1775White in Phil. Trans. LXV. 260 In a day or two more they become flyers. 1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) II. xxiii. 355 There are three classes of fliers in this order. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1873) 17 Birds breeding on precipices, and good fliers, are unlikely to be exterminated.
fig.1601Cornwallyes Ess. x, I am now come from conversing with Princes, great spirits, and high fliers. 1667Pepys Diary 27 Feb., He is not so high a flyer as Mr. Chichley.
b. Something that flies or is carried by the air. † (a) A volatile spirit (obs.). (b) The petals of hops when they become detached.
1471Ripley Compl. Alch. Ep. Edw. IV, xxix. in Ashm. (1652) 116 Till the same of the fixed by the same of the flier be over-gone. 1881Whitehead Hops ii. 14 They [hops] soon ‘go off’, and the petals of the flower cones become disintegrated, or ‘flyers’ in the pickers' parlance.
c. An aviator.
[1679tr. R. Hooke's Philos. Coll. I. 17 A Tail will help both to support, and also to steer or guide the Flyer.] 1934Webster, Flier, flyer, an airman. 1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling ix. 79 In the dining-room were two lady fliers, dressed in blue. 1953C. Day Lewis Italian Visit ii. 31 Recall how flyers from a raid returning, Lightened of one death, were elected for another.
d. A flying machine.
188015th Rep. Aeronaut. Soc. 21 June 22 If you will leave the balloon to me I will not trespass on your flyers. 1903M. Wright in M. W. McFarland Wright Pap. (1953) I. 393, I spend the day largely in getting typewriter copies of the description of the Wright flyer. 1908H. G. Wells War in Air viii. 254 Next only to the Butteridge machine these were certainly the most efficient heavier-than-air fliers that had ever appeared. 1964Listener 14 May 780/1 Ordinary motorists will not mind, because about this time they will all possess small private flyers.
2. a. One who or that which moves with exceptional speed, e.g. a fish, horse, ship, etc.
1795Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) II. 50 Our flyers were able to get near them, but not nearer than half gun⁓shot. 1842Spirit of Times 4 June 163 We hope the Rocket of our old friend Dr. W. may be such another ‘flyer’; he certainly ‘goes off’ well. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. x. (ed. 12) 76 Grooms with led horses are overtaken by their masters, and we recognize many a well-known flyer. 1867F. Francis Angling ix. (1880) 314 He [a fish] was a regular flier..He took out clear, without stopping for a second, over one hundred yards of line. 1877Coursing Calendar 1876 79 Mr. Brocklebank's Bombard..although not a flyer, he will turn out a useful dog. 1887Tuer & Fagan 1st Year Silken Reign vii. 129 The..coach, achieved for itself an enviable reputation as a ‘flyer’ of the first order. 1888St. Louis Globe Democrat 2 Mar. (Farmer), In spite of the strike, passenger trains excepting what are known as the flyers, are running with reasonable regularity. 1919F. Hurst Humoresque 131 You ought to see the flier a friend of mine has got. A Mercury Six [motor-car] with a limousine top like a grand-opera box. 1922E. Wallace Flying Fifty-Five xi. 67 Fifty-Five is a flyer... He did the five furlongs in fifty-eight and a fifth seconds. 1948C. L. B. Hubbard Dogs in Brit. 35 Heredity and environment count a great deal in whether a puppy will be a ‘flyer’ or a ‘bad-doer’. 1971Daily Tel. 21 July 11/2 The normal carburettor-fed 2002 is one of the fastest cars in its class: with the new Kugelfischer fuel injection system it is a real flyer.
b. A fast kangaroo. Austral. colloq.
1848H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Austral. xi. 118 At first starting, a young male or female kangaroo, called in the colony ‘a flyer’, can leave both horse and hound far behind. 1861T. McCombie Austral. Sks. 172 The settlers designate the old kangaroos as ‘old men’ and ‘old women’, the full-grown animals are named ‘Flyers’. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 16 Two young fliers had got through the fence surrounding the ‘turkey nest’ tank.
c. fig. A person exceptional in some (specified) way.
1930T. Thurston Man in Black Hat xvi. 278 We had an extraordinarily pretty girl here in the bar. Real flier, she was. 1936Wodehouse Laughing Gas iii. 30, I am no flier in the way of looks. 1939J. Cary Mister Johnson 140 He's not a flier at the accounts.
d. Cricket. A ball pitched short that flies up sharply; a ‘bouncer’.
1913Cricket 305 Every bowler pitches short sometimes, and when he does so, the resultant rib-roaster..flier..call it what you will, is no more than an ordinary risk. 1954J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year 58 May ducked a flier from Archer and was hit on the back. 1962Times 1 May 4/2 Nobody was the victim of a flyer.
3. Applied to mechanical contrivances that have a quick revolution.
a. An appliance for regulating the motion of a roasting-jack.
1674Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 125 A Jack, by being only wown up, without thripping the..flyer. 1706Swift Baucis & Philemon 71 The Flyer..Turn'd round so quick, you scarce cou'd see't. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xvi. 95 Spinning like the flyer of a jack.
†b. One of the vanes used in an early form of ship's log. Obs. Cf. fly n.2 5 h.
1729H. De Saumarez in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 47 The four Iron Fins, or Flyers..These Flyers are so contrived as to have full Play in any Motion of the Boat.
†c. = fly-wheel. Obs.
1781Watt Patent in Muirhead Mech. Invent. Watt III. 52 In order that the said motion may be more regular, I fix to or upon the shaft or axis FML..a heavy wheel or flyer.
d. A sail of a windmill; also pl. ‘the fan-wheel on the vane of a windmill cap which rotates the latter as the wind veers’ (Knight).
1790Mrs. Wheeler Westmld. Dial. (1821) 97 Paur man wur ath fleers, en raund it went. a1848J. Marcet Seasons (ed. 5) IV. ii. 35 That mill with the great fliers, that the wind pushes round.
e. That part of a spinning machine which twists the thread as it conducts it to and winds it upon the bobbin. Cf. fly n.2 5 f. Also attrib., as flyer frame.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 383 A roving-frame of a different construction has received more general adoption..; it is called the bobbin and flier roving-frame. 1831G. R. Porter Silk Manuf. 201 At each extremity of the flyer an eye is formed..The thread from the bobbin is passed through both these eyes. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 356/2 The flyer..winds it upon the bobbin. 1957Encycl. Brit. VI. 562/1 Following on the last head of drawframes the process becomes one principally of attenuation. To this end the material is passed through one, two, three or four passages of machines collectively known as flyer frames.
f. The winder of a balling machine.
1869J. H. Webster in Eng. Mech. 31 Dec. 387/2 The ‘flyer’..winds the string on to the mandrel.
4. In various uses, related to senses of the vb.
†a. pl. ? The fringe or tassels of a curtain. Obs.
1577Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1836) 414, Iij payer of courtings withe the flyers of saye. 1580Ibid. One payer of say hingers with fleers.
b. pl. Steps forming a straight flight; opposed to winders.
1667Primatt City & C. Build. 66 Flyers and winders..are plain, and triangular Steps without any Landing place. 1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 248 Straight Stairs..always fly, and never Wind, and therefore are by some call'd Flyers. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 329/2 Straight stairs are called flyers.
c. Printing. (See quot.) Also pl.
1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 895/2 Flyer, a vibratory rod with fingers which take the sheet of paper from the tapes and carry it to the delivery table, the sheet resting flatly against the flyer-fingers by the resistance of the air. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 706.
d. U.S. A small handbill or fly-sheet; spec. one issued by the police (see also quot. 1952).
1889Lit. World (U.S.) 21 Dec. 485/2 Inserting gaily⁓colored advertising fliers in the body of the magazine. 1952Berrey & Van Den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang (ed. 2) §477.4 Flyer,..a warrant for arrest. 1955D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 149 Is there a flyer out for this man? This is a police circular carrying photographs, fingerprints. 1962K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xiv. 94 Boards covered with tacked-up police flyers. 1965E. McBain Doll (1966) iii. 38 Leslie offered him the agency flyer on Tinha, the composite that went to all photographers, advertising agency art directors, and prospective clients. 1966D. Shannon With a Vengeance (1968) i. 13 They had also an unidentified corpse, and all the paperwork on that: the flyers sent out with the description. 1966Word Study Feb. 6/2 This sentence from a recent advertising flier of Fortune.
e. A flying buttress.
1912F. Bond Cathedrals 73 A second set of fliers was built above the aisle roof.
5. a. A flying jump or leap; a flight. In quot. fig.
1883R. Grant White W. Adams 51 Haven't we taken rather a flyer? What has all this to do with Mrs. Trollope?
b. Hence, U.S. ‘A speculative investment: applied to a purchase of stock by one not a regular buyer, in hope of immediate profit’ (Cent. Dict.).
1846Spirit of Times 11 July 229/3 Lend me a quarter..just for a flyer. 1848W. Armstrong Stocks 37 A. B. Neilson occasionally sells fifty or a hundred shares of stock by way of a flyer. 1870J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 136 A ‘flyer’, is a small side operation, not employing one's whole capital. It is nearly equivalent to what is ordinarily known as a venture. 1886Pall Mall G. 26 Aug. 11/1 He..turned to the Wall-street news to see how much he had already made on his flyer. 1888New Princeton Rev. V. 328 The temptation to take a flyer in the market. 1966Newsweek 2 May 64/1 More and more ‘Aunt Janes’ are deciding to take a flyer, growing impatient with their slow-moving quality stocks as they see high-flyers double and triple in value.
6. slang. (See quots.)
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Flyers, Shoes. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 34 A ‘flyer’, that is, a shoe soled without having been welted.
7. One who runs away; a fugitive; = fleer. † Also, one who flies or shuns; an avoider of.
c1460Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 308 Here is a bag fulle, lokys..Of flytars, of flyars, and renderars of reffys. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 440 As hapnis oft..ane greit braggar to be fund a fliear. a1633S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. i. xxxvi. §1 (1670) 111 Timon that hater and flyer of the company of men. 1648Eikon Bas. (1662) 127 Now the Fliers from..their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins (1884) II. xxi. 254, I..let the flyers know I should soon give fire. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 117 The Norman horsemen followed on the fliers, slaying and taking captives.
▪ II. flyer
obs. f. fleer. |