\ 
FLY 
To Fi.y off. To revolt. 
The traitor Syphax 
Flew off at once with his Numidian horfe. Addijon. 
To Fly out. To burft into palTion.— Paflion is apt to 
ruffle, and pride will flyout into contumely and negleft. 
Collier of Friendfhip. 
How eafv is a noble fpirit difcern’d, 
Front harflt and fulphurous matter that flies out 
In contumelies, makes a noife, and (links. Ben Jonfon. 
To break out into licence : 
You ufe me like a coni fer fpurr’d and rein’d : 
If I flyout, my fiercenefs you command. Dryden. 
To flirt violently from any direflion.—All bodies, 
moved circularly, have a perpetual endeavour to recede 
from the centre, and every moment would fly out in right 
lines, if' they were not reftrained. Bentley. 
Tolet¥\,X. To difcharge : 
The noifv culverin, o’ercharged, lets fly. 
And butfts, unaiming, in the fended (ky. Granville. 
To be light and unencumbered : as a flying camp. 
To FLY, v. a. To fhun ; to avoid ; to decline : 
Love like a fltadow flies, when fubflance love purfues ; 
Purfuing that which flies, and flying what purfues. 
Shakefpeare. 
To refufe aflociation with.—Nature flies him like en¬ 
chanted ground. Dryden. 
Sleep flies the wretcli; or when with cares opprefl, 
And his tofs’d limbs are weary’d into red, 
Then dreams invade. Juvenal. 
To quit by flight: 
Dedalus, to fly the Cretan fhore, 
His heavy limbs on jointed pinions bore, • 
The fird who fail’d in air. Dryden. 
To attack by a bird of prey.—If a man can tame this 
monfler, and with her fly other ravening fowl, and kill 
them, it is fomewhat worth. Bacon. —It is prdbable that 
wms originally the preterite ofyTp, when it fignified 
volation, and fled when it fignified efcape : flown fliould 
be confined likewife to volation ; but thefe diflindtions 
are now confounded. There appears to be no book ex¬ 
cept the Scriptures in which fly and flee are carefully kept 
Separate. 
FLY,yi [pleoje, Sax.] A fmall winged infeiSl of many 
fpecies. See the article Musca, and correfponding en¬ 
graving; alfo Entomology, vol. vi. p. 824. 
As flics to wanton boys, are we to th’ gods ; 
'They kill 11s for their fport. Shakefpeare. 
To heedlefs/Zifs the window proves 
A condant death. Thomfon's Summer. 
FLY,/. in mechanics, a heavyweight applied to cer¬ 
tain machines, to regulate their motions, as in a jack ; or 
to increafe their effedt, as in the coining engine, &c. by 
means of which the force of the power is not only pre- 
lerved, but equally didributed through all parts of the 
revolution. The fly is either like a crofs, with weights 
at the ends of its-arms; or like a wheel at right-angles to 
the axis of motion. It maybe applied to various forts 
of engines, whether moved by men, horfes, wind, or water ; 
and is of great ufe in thofe parts of an engine which have a 
quick circular motion, and where the power or refidance 
adts unequally in the different parts of a revolution. In 
this cafe the fly becomes a moderator, making the motion 
of revolution almoll everywhere equal. That part of a 
vane which points how the wind blows is alfo called afly. 
FLY-HO'NEYSUCKLE. See Halleria and Loni- 
cer a. 
FLY OR'CHIS. See Ophrys. 
7 'o I’LY'BLOW, v. a. T taint with flies ; to fill with 
maggots.—I am unwilling to believe that he defigns to 
FLY 527 
play tricks, and to flyblow my words to make others dif- 
tade them. Stillingfleet. 
Like a flyblown cake of tallow ; 
Or on parchment, ink turn’d yellow. Swift. 
So morning infedts, that in muck begun, 
Shine, buz, and flyblow, in the fettingfun. Pope. 
FLY'BOAT,_/i A kind of veffel nimble and light for 
failing. 
FLY'C ATCHER, f. One that hunts flies.—The fwal- 
lovv was a flycatcher as well as the fpiner. VEfl>ange. 
FLY'ER, f. One that flies or runs away. This is 
written more frequently flier : 
He grieves fo many Britons fhould be lod ; 
Taking more pains, when he beheld them yield, 
To lave the fliers than to win the field. Waller. 
One that ufes wings; the fly of a jack. In architec¬ 
ture, fuch flairs as go draight, and do not wind round, 
nor have the deps made tapering, but equally broad at 
both ends. Hence, if one flight do not rife to the top of 
the dory, &c. there is a broad half pace, and then com¬ 
monly another fet of flyers. 
To FLY'FISH, v.n. To angle with a hook baited with 
a fly, either natural or artificial.—I fliall give you fome 
directions for fly-fijhing. IVatJbn. 
FLY-FLAP, f. Any thing to flap flies with.—I have 
a fly-flop here. Congreve. 
FLY'ING,/'. the progreffive motion of a bird, or other 
animal, through the air. The art of flying has beyn at¬ 
tempted by feveral perfons, by the help of mechanics. 
Friar Bacon not only aflerts the poflibility of flying, but 
affirms that he himfelf knew how to make a machine with 
which a matt might be able to convey himfelf through 
the air like a bird ; and further adds, that it had been 
tried with fuccefs. This is laid to have confided in thet 
following method; viz. in a couple of large thin hollow 
copper globes, exhaufled of air; which being much 
lighter than air, would fuflain a chair on which a perfon 
might fit. Father Francifco Lana, in his Prodromo, pro- 
pofes the fame thing, as his own thought. He computes, 
that a round veflel of plate-hrafs, fourteen feet in diame¬ 
ter, weighing three ounces the fquare foot, will only 
weigh 1848 ounces ; whereas a quantity of air of the fame 
bulk will weigh near 2156 ounces ; fo that the globe will 
not only be fudained in the air, but will carry with it 
a weight of 304 ounces ; and by increafing the fize of the 
globe, the thicknefs of the metal remaining the fame, he 
adds, a veflel might be made to carry a much greater 
weight. But the fallacy is obvious: a globe of the di- 
ntenfions lie deferibes, as proved by Dr. Hook, would 
not fuflain the preffure of the air, but be crufhed inwards. 
Indeed it is not probable that fuch a globe can be made 
of a thinnefs fufficient to float in the atmofphere after it 
is exhaufled of air, and yet be flrong enough to fuflain 
the comprefling force of the atmofphere. But for this 
purpofe it feems that the globe fliould be filled with an air 
as elaflic or flrong as the atmofphere, and yet be very much 
lighter; fuch as that lately tiled in the Mongolfiers and 
balloons ; the former of which is filled with common air 
heated, fo as to be more elaflic, and lefs heavy; and the 
latter with inflammable air, which is as elaflic as the 
common air, with only about one-tenth of its weight. And 
thus the idea of flying, or rather floating, in the air, has 
been realized by the moderns, tifing however a different 
fort of air. See Aerostation, vol. i. p. 164—175. 
The fame author deferibes a machine for flying, invent¬ 
ed by the Sieur Befnier, a fmith of Sable, in the county 
of Main. See Philof. Codec. No. 1. By the foregoing 
method however, only a method of floating can be ob¬ 
tained, like a log floating in a current; but not of flying, 
which confifls in moving through the air, independent of 
any current; and which mu A be effedled by fomething ia 
the nature of wings. Attempts of this kind have indeed 
been made by feveral perfons j but it does not appear that 
any 
