Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a racehorse; a fast horse.

1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 256: Flattered by my attentions, and pleased with my loudly expressed admiration of his ‘flyer,’ he [said] that ‘Oriel’ was the fastest horse he had ever trained.
1869		Sporting Gaz. 18 Dec. 913/1: [H]e was within a couple of lengths of the Melton ‘flyer’.
1879		H]G.R. Sims ‘Polly’ in Dagonet Ballads 79: So my mates what had flyers they passed me, and left me behind on the road.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 7/1: For many years, the old ’un not only put up his cash to swell the racing funds of the colony, but he kept a string of flyers himself as well, and was no mean judge of a prancer, either.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 8 Sept. 3: At a given signal both fliers flew.
1889		H. Smart Long Odds I 169: [I]t as quite a feather in his cap to be the owner of such a ‘flyer’ as Damocles.
1890		Sporting Times 22 Mar. 1/1: I know a brave mare whose a flyer, / Hark! all ye who money require; / Quick, put on your shirt, / On this absolute cert / And plump for the gallant Sweetbriar.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 2/4: Maybe Keith thinks he possesses a ‘flyer’ in Westerly.

2. in ext. use of sense 1, an attractive young woman.

1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 188: Many were the smiles, and bows, and nods, and finger kisses, and bright eyes, and sweet glances, that the fair flyers shot at our friend.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 212: What a field of neat well-bred-looking flyers – I mean deuced pretty girls.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 26 June 4/4: Wild Kitty [...] is a flyer, isn’t she, boys?

3. in ext. use of sense 1, a successful person.

1887		‘’Arry on Ochre’ in Punch 15 Oct. 169/1: Some stungy ’uns carn’t go the pace, / But I know I should turn out a flyer, and so ought to be in the race.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 19: I was never a flyer at verses.

4. a fast vehicle.

1887		‘My Sally’ in Baumann (1902) cxx: My pony-trap, yes, it’s a flyer.
1887		Dly Tribune (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: An express train is a ‘flyer’.
1933		Gibbons Truth About the Legion 65: The line is narrow-gauge, and the train’s twenty miles an hour does not of course make it a flyer.

5. (US black) a womaniser, a ‘fast’ man.

1938

Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 6 Aug. 18/1: [A] lad with the reputation of a light flyer, tossing women over when he tires of them and taking on a new one.