high-flyern.
/ˌhʌɪˈflʌɪə/, U.S. /ˌhaɪˈflaɪər/ I. Senses relating to physical height.† 2. slang. A person who sits in the gallery of a theatre. Obsolete.
1. † b. In full purple highflyer. The purple emperor butterfly, Apatura iris, which typically flies high in the tree canopy. Obsolete.
a. A person who or thing which flies high in the air.In quot. 1886: a type of swing.
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the world > movement > progressive motion > moving with current of air or water > motion in the air > [noun] > flying (as) with wings > one who or that which > high
high-flyer?1575
the world > animals > birds > flight > [noun] > bird that flies > that flies high
high-flyer1855
society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > swing > [noun]
tottera1387
merry-totter1440
shuggie-shue1653
swinger1662
swing1687
high-flyer1886
swing set1951
?1575 C. Vitell tr. H. Niclaes Prouerbia vi. f. 16v I haue seene..the Feathers of many of those High-flyers.
1590 R. Harvey Plaine Percevall sig. C4 Men haue great desire to be compted high fliers and deepe swimmers.
1614 S. Latham Falconry i. vii. 26 There be many of them that be good mettelled Hawkes, and high fliers.
1675 R. Leigh Poems 114 Such is the High flyers fate, In Air, their Pride does terminate.
1773 J. Campbell Treat. Mod. Faulconry 174 The tercel..is naturally a high-flyer, and does not carry.
1785 Town & Country Mag. May 259/2 I am air balloonized mad—My wife, who..is a high flyer, insists upon my going up with Lunardi and Blanchard.
1855 R. Browning Grammarian's Funeral 135 All ye highfliers of the feathered race, Swallows and curlews!
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge I. iii. 35 Improvements..in the roundabouts and highfliers.
1927 H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. T. Mann Magic Mountain (London ed.) I. iv. 106 Regular high-flyers. You ought to see the jumps they make with those skis of theirs.
1998 Flying July 74/1 Piper engineers had..designed an airplane to be an efficient high-flier.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > unspecified and miscellaneous types > miscellaneous types
high-flyer?1749
nonpareil1749
porphyry1819
satin carpet1819
satin pygmy1828
scopolian1829
chalk carpet1832
sieve lackey1832
sprawler1832
tissue1832
treble bar1832
treble gold stripe1832
vesper-beauty1832
viburnian1832
yellowhead1832
flame carpet1862
sting-moth1863
lilac moth1868
luna-moth1869
melon-caterpillar1884
wood-nymph1885
unicorn-moth1891
geometer moth1897
the suspected1908
porina1929
tomato pinworm1931
mopane worm1966
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Rhopalocera (butterflies) > [noun] > family Nymphalidae > subfamily Ithomiinae > genus Apatura > apatura iris (purple emperor)
purple emperor1742
emperor of the woods?1749
high-flyer?1749
emperor1773
emperor of Morocco1788
emperor butterfly1822
?1749 B. Wilkes Eng. Moths & Butterflies 63 The Purple High-Flyer, or Emperor of the Woods.
1844 Christian Mother's Mag. July 406 The Purple Emperor, or High Flyer, (Apatura Iris), [is] one of the most splendid of British Butterflies.
1855 J. G. Wood Sketches & Anecd. Animal Life 361 The butterflies will sit with outstretched wings on the damp margins; even the purple highflyer himself may be taken thus.
c. Frequently with distinguishing word. Any of three chiefly Palaearctic geometrid moths of the genus Hydriomena, which typically have greyish wings with dark markings. Also high-flyer moth.July highflyer: see the first element.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths > [noun] > miscellaneous types
high-flyer1776
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. II. 605 The high flyer moth; the scarce Silver-line-Moth, and the Copper Under-wing Moth feed upon it [sc. sallow].
1809 A. H. Haworth Lepidoptera Britannica ii. 321 The yellow-striped Highflyer.
1845 H. N. Humphreys & J. O. Westwood Brit. Moths II. 47 They have a peculiar vaulting flight at a considerable height, whence some of them are termed high-flyers by collectors.
1907 Trans. Worcs. Naturalists' Club 3 84 A dark form of Hydriomena sordidata (July High-flyer) was netted.
1967 T. Lewis & L. R. Taylor Introd. Exper. Ecol. iv. 173 (table) Macrolepidoptera in light traps... May High-flyer (Hydriomena coerulata).
2011 Guardian 11 June 32/5 The litany of moths whose caterpillars feed on species of willow..reads like a found poem about sensual pleasure: angle shades, autumn green carpet.., pale brindled beauty, ruddy highflyer.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > theatre-going > theatregoer > [noun]
high-flyer1719
theatre-goer1870
theatrist1889
1719 in T. D'Urfey Wit & Mirth V. 349 Bench-hoppers, High-Flyers, Pit-Plyers, be still.
II. figurative and extended uses.† 5. slang. An exaggerated statement; a ‘tall tale’. Obsolete.
3.
a. A person who has high aims and ambitions; a person with an aspirational outlook. Also (now chiefly): a person who is or has the potential to be highly successful.
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the mind > mental capacity > expectation > hope > aspiration, ambition > [noun] > one who aspires
pursuanta1393
aspirer1584
pretender1598
high-flyer1600
candidate1648
well-wisher1711
aspirant1738
aspirant1743
fast-tracker1970
1600 W. Cornwallis Ess. I. x. sig. F8v I am now come from conuersing with Princes, great spirits, and high fliers.
1694 J. Crowne Married Beau ii. 26 Oh! Pshaw, Our Hearts are seldom such high Flyers.
1719 H. Playford Wit & Mirth II. 327 Fortunes high flyers, you that mount our Boxes, And you low Tire, Cracks, Harridans and Doxies; Of all Degrees, a favour I implore.
1792 H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry I. i. iii. 32 It is better to trust a plain man like him, than one of your high flyers, that will make laws to suit their own purposes.
1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma i. 1 He had all the airy dreaminess of an hereditary highflyer.
1924 Times 2 Feb. 2/8 Academic high fliers benefit most when fixed ability groups are ‘unscrambled’.
1969 Listener 24 Apr. 591/2 Things which might cramp the style of a high flyer include salary guide-lines.
2001 S. Crainer & D. Dearlove in Financial Times Handbk. Managem. (ed. 2) 375/1 So-called high flyers—graduates and other high-potential recruits.
b. slang. An immodest or promiscuous woman; a high-class, fashionable prostitute or courtesan. Now historical and rare.Sometimes overlapping with sense 3a.
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society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
1663 S. Pepys Diary 27 May (1971) IV. 159 He..would have me..to look him out a widow..A woman sober and no high flyer as he calls it.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew High Flyers, Impudent, Forward, Loose, Light Women; also bold Adventurers.
1821 P. Egan Life in London ii. v. 284 As you have your ‘Highflyers’ at Almack's,..we also have some ‘choice creatures’ at our All Max in the East.
1927 M. King-Hall I think I Remember 188 A handsome woman, I'll grant you, but what used to be politely termed in the days of my youth, ‘a high flyer’.
1977 K. Caffrey Twilight's Last Gleaming i. 13 Gentlemen who wearied of their gentility could amuse themselves elsewhere with ‘bits of muslin’ or ‘high flyers’.
c. slang. A genteel beggar; (also) a writer of begging letters.
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the mind > possession > poverty > mendicancy > [noun] > beggar > begging-letter writer
begging-letter-writer1846
high-flyer1851
screever1851
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 250/2 Pursuing the course of a ‘high-flyer’ (genteel beggar).
1859 J. D. Burn Autobiogr. Beggar Boy (ed. 4) 17 The highflyer turns up his genteel proboscis at the common cadger.
1887 Standard 20 June 5/2 The pretended noblemen and knights..are still represented by the ‘high-flyers’ or broken-down gentlemen.
1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 654/1 Any kind of house took in all sorts of people,..beggars and thieves, blind fiddlers and costermongers, tramps and ‘highfliers’.
4. A person with high-flown or extreme opinions.
a. Chiefly in the late 17th and early 18th centuries: a person holding opinions which give a high place to the authority and claims of the established Church or State; a High Churchman; a high Tory. Cf. high-flown adj. 4, high-flying adj. 3. Now historical.
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society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Anglicanism > High Church > [noun] > person
High Churchman1679
high-flyer1680
Laudian1710
Sacheverellite1710
Laudist1730
High-Churchite1833
Anglo-Catholic1838
High-Churchist1839
altitudinarian1844
1680 Hon. Cavalier 9 The honest Divines of the Church of England who for their Conscience and Obedience are Branded for High-flyers.
1718 Entertainer sig. Aiijv I am afraid St. Peter and St. Paul will scarce escape being censured for Tories and High-Flyers.
1730 J. Swift Vindic. Ld. C—— 8 I am told that she openly professeth herself to be a highflyer.
1784 Polit. Mag. June 545/2 They were the political high flyers, who made it a point to support the Crown a tori et a travers.
1814 I. D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. II. 184 From a sullen Sectarist [he] turned a flaming highflyer for the ‘supreme dominion’ of the church.
1894 Freeman's Jrnl. (Dublin) 5 Dec. 4/5 ‘If you unite with us we will rob you,’ was the prophetic declaration of that unrelenting Tory high flier, Dr. Johnson.
1948 A. D. McKillop Eng. Lit. from Dryden to Burns i. 6 An extreme Tory, or High Flyer, was very likely a Jacobite as well.
2008 S. J. Connolly Divided Kingdom vii. 271 After 1714 Tory bishops who had supported the high flyers in the lower house..were marginalized.
b. Church History. In Scotland, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: a member of the Evangelical party (see evangelical adj. 2b).
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society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Presbyterianism > Presbyterian sects and groups > [noun] > evangelical
high-flyer1822
Hallelujah Band1863
Jesus movement1970
1822 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. Sept. 361/1 Here met, again and again,..whig, tory, and republican—the high-flyer, the moderate clergyman, and the dissenter.
1892 D. Masson Edinb. Sketches & Memories 172 The small minority of Evangelicals or ‘High-Fliers’, as they were called, corresponded to the proscribed ‘Liberals’ in secular politics.
1897 Q. Rev. Oct. 486 When he [sc. Scott] wrote, the fierce ecclesiastical conflict between Moderates and ‘high flyers’ was still raging.
1931 H. W. Thompson Sc. Man of Feeling xiii. 59 That ‘turn’ [for theatrical studies] was encouraged in a manner that must have given scandal to the Highflyers among the friends of Dr. Joshua.
2003 E. J. Cowan For Freedom Alone vi. 127 He [sc. John Witherspoon] was a high-flyer, or evangelical, and thus belonged to the same kirk party as Burns' Holy Willie.
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the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > exaggeration, hyperbole > [noun] > action of exaggerating > instance of
overreacher1589
reacher1613
overtruth1638
stretcher1674
stretch1711
high-flyer1776
windy1933
1776 S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleasure I. 168 If your Honour had heard the high-fliers he crammed my poor head with, all the while we were at it—the soft things he said [etc.].
6. (The name of) a fast stagecoach. Now historical and rare.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > public service vehicle > [noun] > stagecoach or mail coach
posting carriage1556
wagon1615
post-coach1636
stagecoach1658
flying coach1669
stage1671
wagon-coach1675
stage-wagon1681
post-car1694
post-wagon1694
post calash1703
fly1708
post-carriage1720
post-stage1738
diligence1742
flying machine1764
machine1769
mail coach1785
dilly1786
mail stage1792
high-flyer1799
post-equipage1813
post vehicle1815
tally-ho coach1831
mail packeta1837
flying carriage1849
stager1852
mail-hack1909
1799 J. Fuller Hist. Berwick upon Tweed xiv. 453 A daily coach runs from this inn..called the High Flyer.—Has four horses, and goes between London and Edinburgh.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian i, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. I. 14 Mail-coach races against mail-coach, and high-flyer against high-flyer, through the most remote districts of Britain.
1863 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 1 Aug. 540/1 The old room on the ground floor where the passengers of the Highflyer used to dine.
1919 S. J. Weyman Great House (1922) vi. 39 The emotions of those who journeyed for the first time on a railway at a speed four times as great as that of the swiftest High-flier.
7. More fully high-flyer walnut. A variety of walnut ( Juglans regia) originally cultivated in East Anglia and considered to bear excellent fruit. Now historical and rare.The famous thoroughbred stallion Highflyer, mentioned in quot. 18222, was foaled in Suffolk in 1774. He sired a son named Walnut, born in 1786.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > edible nuts or nut-trees > [noun] > walnut > types of
French walnut1639
bird-nut1676
tender-skull1691
high-flyer1820
1820 W. Hooker in F. A. Roach Hooker's Finest Fruits 215 (caption to plate) The High flyer Walnut.
1822 Trans. Hort. Soc. London 4 517 George Beauchamp, Esq., sent to the Society specimens of the Highflyer Walnut, grown in the town of Thetford, a variety which appears to have been originally confined to the neighbourhood of that place, and of Bury St. Edmund's.
1822 R. Johnson Turf. Reg. & Sportsman III. 65 (note) Highflyer was so called from his being foaled in a Paddock in which there were many Highflyer Walnut Trees.
1872 Food Jrnl. Oct. 343 There are several varieties of walnuts grown in England, such as the High-flyer, or Thetford nut.
1911 C. Richardson New Bk. Horse 73/2 Highflyer..was so named because of his having been foaled in a paddock in which there were several high-flyer walnut trees.
1925 W. J. Bean Trees & Shrubs Hardy in Brit. Isles (ed. 4) I. 667 Other varieties [of Juglans regia] are cultivated for the qualities of their fruit, such as ‘Highflyer’, ‘Meylanaise’, [etc.].
1989 F. A. Roach Hooker's Finest Fruits 214 The High-flyer was one of the new varieties tried in England as the cultivation of the trees for their nuts became more popular.
8. Stock Market. A highly speculative stock which increases sharply in price over a short period of time; (also) any high-priced stock. Cf. flyer n. 5b.
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society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > stock > as likely to be profitable or not
sell1909
high-flyer1931
growth stock1957
growth leader1967
1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday xii. 310 At a moment when many of the high-flyers of earlier months were losing ground, the really sensational advances were being made by shares of such..companies as United States Steel.
1969 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 6/4 The other fund may have been lucky—or clever—enough to have a number of real ‘high-fliers’ in its portfolio and so has had to do comparatively little switching to achieve its 100 p.c. growth.
1984 Austral. Micro Computerworld May 31/1 TeleVideo was listed in the Top 10.., an unheralded performance behind such high fliers as Convergent Technologies.
2002 M. Levy Invest with Genius ii. 13 Every now and then the lowest five [Dow Jones] stocks are replaced with new high flyers with a larger market value.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?1575