fly adj.
1. aware, knowledgeable; thus put (someone) fly
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Tea-table Misc. (1733) I 441: He had a magpye That was very fly, And used for to murmur and chat [...] And the magpye Who was so very fly, He into a meeting-house gat; And as the old parson Was canting his lesson, Cry’d, what a pox wad ye be at? | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 187: Next he got into a Crew of Wool-Drawers, whose Trade is to snatch away Cloaks, Hats or Perukes from Towners; a very fly sort of Theft, practis’d only in the Night, the greatest Part of the Cunning lying in the Choice of a proper Opportunity. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.Y. Gazette Revived 16 Jan. 1/1: That the fly Ones should not suspect you for a Courtier, you have been likewise very arch in giving us to understand, that you had been heretofore pleased to encourage and support the Party. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Fly. Knowing. Acquainted with another’s meaning or proceeding. The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 242: fly: vigilant; suspicious; cunning; not easily robbed or duped; a shopkeeper or person of this description, is called a fly cove, or a leary cove; on other occasions flyis synonymous with flash or leary. | |
| Real Life in London II 96: I am not fly* to the subject at present. [* Fly—To be up to any thing, to understand, to know, or be awake]. | |
| Worcester Herald 26 Dec. 4/3: Fly, to understand slang and thieving; fly as a pigeon, to know nothing. | |
| Examiner 3 Apr. 11/2: Cook shops and gemmen’s houses! Vy they’re the werry last spots vich them as is ‘fly’ to our business could prick [sic] upon for bones. | |
| Comic Almanack Apr. 132: And is it not unkimmon fly in them as rules the nation, / To make us end, with Botany, our public edication? | |
| New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus 36: To enter this rendezvous [...] you must appear fly. | |
 | Britannia and Trades’ Advocate (Hobart) 4 Apr. 2/2: The Commandant must have, he says, a man ‘fly to’ everything. | |
| Bleak House (1991) 224: I’m fly [...] But fen larks, you know! Stow hooking it! | |
| Goulburn Herald (NSW) 29 July 4/4: ‘Is he fly?’ said a slinking individual. | |
| Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 4 July 4/3: So, pals, here you’ll find as I’m fly, / For the lay as’ll best stand the shot. | |
| Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: He’s fly enough to shut up every boozing ken. | |
| Swindon Advertiser 11 Nov. 4/1: Last I had to make ’em fly, not at faking ‘skin’ or ‘cly’, but picking a party’s pocket of note of hand or bill. | |
| Geelong Advertiser (Vic.) 19 Oct. 2/6: Our oracular Melbourne contemporary does not seem to be ‘fly,’ to use an expressive slang term. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 220: The landlord was a ‘fly cove’; he took his dukeship in and sent down for an inspector of police at once. | |
| ‘Only a Shilling’ India-Rubber Face Song Book 4: I’m fly, yes, up to ev’ry trick. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Jan. 2/2: Wives are getting ‘fly’ to the matrimonial game at last. | |
| Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 9: Fly ... Crafty and understands the Cant. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 67: He was pretty ‘fly’ and never threw away a chance as long as he was sober. | |
| Sporting Times 3 May 1/3: He utilised his winnings as groundbait for flats who were fly enough to kid themselves that they could clean him out and leave him granite-rocked at banker, shove-halfpenny, and penny nap. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] G’arn Away 🎵 Just because I’m a flimy girl yer takes me for a Jay / But you bet yer Sunday collar that I'm fly. | |
| Chimmie Fadden 23: Say, you ain’t as fly as I taut. | |
| ‘Leggo Me Ear’ in Roderick (1972) 711: It was very disconcerting, especially to confidence men, spielers and fly young blokes. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 346: Shorty say onc’t you was the fliest bloke in yer line west o’ Denver. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 July 11/1: Erne [...] is ‘fly’ to all the little ring tricks which McGovern utilizes. | |
| Marvel 12 Nov. 7: We’ll trap him, and some of the other fly people who live in this square. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 22 Oct. 4/8: The tarts don’t kno much about the game if they allow the ribuck johnie to be there all the time. They are never seen if they're fly. | |
| Truth (Perth) 5 June 12/1: But he were as fly a Johnnie / As you could hope to see. | |
| ‘The New Fable of the Lonesome Camp’ in Ade’s Fables 258: All the wise Paper-hangers and the fly Guitar Players had him marked up as a Noodle. | |
| ‘The Bus Conductor’ 🎵 My bus is called the Favourite, and I'm a trifle fly / If you think you'll get one over me, why just you have a try. | |
| ‘A Holy War’ in Chisholm (1951) 75: Yeh catch a tiny twinkle in ’is eye / Which gives the office that ’e’s pretty fly / To cunnin’ lurks. | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 10: Wisecrackin’ with the fly-lookin’ jane who is workin’ the bar. | |
| Big Con 129: There a fly lot, those Chinks. | |
| Reported Safe Arrival 43: The Brum Boys boasted of their reputation for ‘fly-ness’. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 6: With that fly cat I’ll chill my chat and fall on my righteous pad and cop a nod like mad. | |
| (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 18: Even the fly coves would come up to me licking their lips and begging. | |
| Nil Carborundum (1963) Act I: I have me suspicions about him. Too friggin fly by half. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 84: You’re a fly bastard. | |
| ‘A Written Answer’ in Liberty Tree 37: To me this author is a fly man / and the critics yonder say his work is alright. | |
| Straight Outta Compton 73: You fly. Go on with your story, old man. | |
| Never a Normal Man 46: Ashbury’s headmaster was friendly but ‘fly’ as I realize now. | |
| Source Aug. 54: That’s a fly bitch [...] act like she ain’t ever heard it. | |
| Bloody January 62: [T]here was nothing a cunt like him could say would wind Cooper up. He was too fly for that. |
2. of clothing, cars, etc., fashionable; of individuals, stylish, sophisticated.
| Discoveries (1774) 10: A fly white petticoat. | |
| Tom and Jerry I i: I thought it best to see that the toggery was all right and fly. | |
| Sam Sly 2 June 3/1: J—n—on, not to come it quite so fly with her dresses and veils [...] it would be more becoming for a snob’s daughter to dress plainer. | |
| Bill Nye and Boomerang 37: She dreamed that she dwelt in marble halls and kept a girl and had a pretty fly time generally. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Sept. 12/1: Once at swell hotels you sat / Dining with the lords on high. / That was when the gods would cry, / Dazzled by your diamonds fat: / ‘Look at Tottie, ain’t she fly!’ [Ibid.] 29 Oct. 16/4: She was ‘fly,’ and bright and witty, / And the ‘Johnnies’ called her Kitty, / And she shouted and her liquor was ‘three star.’. | |
| in Chicago Defender 9 May 23: Back Door’s Revised Dictionary [...] fly — When something looks very okay. | |
| USA Confidential 65: They grill them on where they got such fly autos. | |
| ‘Answer to the Letter’ in et al. Life (1976) 144: The only thing that I really had, / Was my fly crib, a way-out pad. | |
| Gentleman of Leisure 47: Wait till you see the shoes I got today [...] They were something fly – suede with the wet look on top of suede and heels. | |
| Campus Sl. Sept. 3: fly – nice: Jack’s shoes are really fly. | |
| (con. 1985–90) In Search of Respect 141: He was the first one who came out with fly clothes. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 30: The downstroke kind of walk they tried to pass off as fly on TV. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 50: Gray ostrich-skin Dan Post boots with the three-inch heels, the ones Tutt thought were so fly. | |
| Shame the Devil 54: Nobody was more fly than Marvin Barnes. The man drove Rolls-Royce, wore a full-length mink, platform shoes... | |
| Live Without Caution, Die Without Warning 101: The only guy I know [...] buyin’ me gifts, fly clothes and everything. | |
| ‘Trill Niggaz Don’t Die’ 🎵 Now it’s fly to talk country, I made the rules hoe. | |
| ‘Never Seen These’ 🎵 Flyer than a plane, what’s my designer name. |
3. smart, sharp, perspicacious; thus flyness, perspicacity.
| ‘The Cheaters Cheated’ in A Royal Arbor 36: Our fly trappanning trade, / Maintain’d with so much fury, / Is openly bewray’d [...] They do grow cunninger than we, / And do trapan trappanners. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) II 193: But great Achilles, that fly elf, / Kept the best bed-room for himself. | |
| Hants. Chron. 2 Dec. 4/1: Now the French, while in harbour so snug and so fly, / ’Bout their courage they make a fine rout. | |
| Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 13 Dec. 2/2: Although this man’s name was not known, he was recognized by several as a person who had been what is commonly called a Fly Market Shark for several years. | |
| Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: He ’peers to be [...] fly, for he vanted to vill me out the tape (gin) in a dinged upright (measure). | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor (1968) I 411: I used to try a little thieving in Petticoat-lane. They say the ‘fliest’ is easy to take in sometimes – that’s the artfullest; but I could do no good there. | |
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 125: A certain prisoner, who was what is termed a very ‘fly’ man, i.e. a clever, scheming fellow. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Jan. 12/1: The Randolph street artist in ivories is by common consent [...] esteemed uncommonly ‘fly’. | |
| ‘Culture in the Slums’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 180: I thinks that Swinburne at a screed / Is really almost too-too fly. | |
| ‘’Arry on Equality’ in Punch 22 Feb. 85/2: Natural right don’t exist, / Unless it means natural flyness, or natural power of fist. | |
| Artie (1963) 25: You won’t think I’m too fly if I ask you a question, will you? | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] Clever, Ain’t You? 🎵 Clever ain’t you? tricky, ain't you / Think you know a bit, don’t you / Ain’t you fly? | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Oct. 1/4: Now, punters are parties regarded as smarties, / But often you find ’em a little too fly. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 208: This mark of yours is Duke Merrill, the flyest one of the bunch. | |
| At Suvla Bay Ch. iii: ‘’E never goes to church parade.’ ‘No; ’e was a fly one – ’e was.’. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Sept. 4s/7: I think of the booze I’ve been buying / And why I was not more fly. | |
| (con. WW1) Patrol 73: ‘But he’s fly, is Mount . . . He makes a few enquiries [...] and he finds, roughly like, how things are’. | |
| Put on the Spot 51: You’re out to feed them fly newspaper boys with live stuff till this blows over. | |
| ‘Let’s Go Joe’ 🎵 Goodness, gracious alive, / Say Pops, don’t you be so fly. | |
| letter 18 June in Joint (1972) 61: The flip side is Porter’s I Love To Love, with a very fly lyric. | |
| Awopbop. (1970) 162: You have to be a bit fly to spot the difference. | |
| Inside the Und. 163: Ginger is much too fly to keep anything hot. | |
| Slow Boats to China (1983) 194: Every barrack room and ship in the world has a clown like Mir Mohamed – sly, canny, harmlessly dishonest (‘fly’ is the army word). | |
| Happy Like Murderers 84: A watcher and prowler who was fly enough not to appear either of these things. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 fly Definition: 1. Looking one’s absolute best. 2. Being extremely cool. Example: Dat bitch over there be fly, man! | |
| Londonstani (2007) 55: Dat’s some fly shit, he whispered. | |
| ‘Donald Trump’ 🎵 Aiyyo the flyest muh’fucker in the room, yeah, you know it’s me. |
4. dextrous, agile.
| ‘The House Breaker’s Song’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 123: The richest cribs shall our wants supply – / Or we’ll knap a fogle with fingers fly, / When the swell one turns his back. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. 9/2: Sue flimped a soot bag and a prop. She’s the flyest wire in the mob, and all the family men are spoony on her. Sue stole a reticule and a brooch. She’s the smartest lady’s pocket thief in the company (or ‘school ’), and all the thieves are smitten with her. | |
| Sporting Times 18 Jan. 1: Though you are Fly to Flee you are No Flyer at Flea-ing. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 88: The fly mugs. | |
| Everlasting Mercy 15: Saul is a wonder and a fly ’un. / What’ll you have, Saul, at the Lion? |
5. enjoying a run of good luck.
| ‘Australia’s Pride’ in Bulletin 3 Sept. 32: As he was fly he thought he’d try / The Sydney folks as well. |
6. of a woman, occas. a man, promiscuous, flirtatious.
| Pioneer Exp. (Pembina, ND) 13 Apr. 4/4: Advice to girls [...] To make oneself conspicuous by open contempott of [...] social laws is the first degree of the descending scale. To be ‘fast,’ ‘loud,’ ‘high,’ ‘fly’ (how many synonyms out national slang dictionary offers for the next slide) is [...] dangerously allied to culpable indiscretion. | |
| S.F. News Letter 4 Feb. n.p.: I’m just getting sickn tired o the way them fly dames go on, n the way the fellahs hang round em n dance with em n so forth [F&H]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 May 7/2: A fly miss or two is always acceptable, and adds to the attractions of the match. This is exceedingly more so when the fly miss is on the grand stand and is attractive and wriggly. | |
| Family Connections 18: What luck for a boy to get hold of two such fly women [...] I suppose you will always be running after her fat arse, and her handsome daughter. | |
| Walls Of Jericho 156: I got a picture o’ myself lettin’ any guy alone that gets fly with my girl. | |
| Really the Blues 197: Rue Auber; fly little chick gets stranglehold on my lapel, tries to cruise me up to her apartment. | |
| Who Live In Shadow (1960) 48: The fly chicks, the prostitutes, and their sweet men. | |
| Cross of Lassitude 128: Gee – her hair’s done up and everything. She looks fly! | |
| Carlito’s Way 9: I’m runnin’ around with these fly broads from 111th Street. | |
| ‘Still D.R.E.’ 🎵 Whether you’re cooling on a corner with your fly bitch / Laid back in the shack, play this track. |
7. (US) rebellious, uninhibited in behaviour.
| Martha and I 223: ‘Don’t be fly, young feller,’ said the policeman. | |
| Adventures of Jimmie Dale 135: Blast you, Mope! [...] You’re too blamed fly! D’ye wanter queer the whole biz? | |
| Spike Island (1981) 39: This fly little bugger has given us another set of false particulars. | |
| Source Nov. 25: They were talking about partying, getting fly, getting money. | |
| Indep. on Sun. Rev. 7 May 48: He’s a shy guy, not a fly guy. |
8. (orig. US) insolent, brash.
| They Die with Their Boots Clean 65: Well, don’t get fly here, son. It won’t pay you. | |
| After Hours 56: ‘You know how fly these kids are today. They don’t wanna pay their dues’. |
9. (US black/campus) of a woman, attractive, pretty, stylish.
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 2: Your fly chick is looking most frantic and your short is all gassed up and ready to roll. | |
| Playin’ the Dozens 125: [T]he white male teacher may say, ‘She’s a sharp lookin’ chick (or broad).’ His black student may say, ‘Jim, she fly’ . | |
| ‘Rhyme Pays’ 🎵 Because my jams be crazy packed with all fly ladies / I’m talkin’ def girlies and I don’t mean maybe. | |
| Spidertown (1994) 106: ‘That mean I got little tits?’ ‘No. You got fly tits.’. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 16: You can be successful, beautiful and fly without being glamorous all the time. | |
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 fly n. Super fly, so fly, ultimate fly, fly fly, fuck’in fly. Complement, meaning a studly male, or simply a good compliment--as cool, or attractive [...] Can also be used by males to describe a hot female. | |
| Random Family 293: ‘The way they say it – “Coco, you, that girl is fly, your daughter is fly”.’. | |
| ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Shameeq looked shorty over. She was a fly, chinky-eyed cinnamon bun. | |
| www.verywellfamily.com/a-teen-slang-dictionary 10 Mar. 🌐 Fly - Boys tend to refer to girls they think are good looking as ‘fly’. |
10. (US) excellent, terrific.
| ‘Cant of the Disadvantaged, Socially Maladjusted, Secondary School Child’ in Urban Education Jan. 108: fly: good. | |
| Street Talk 2 17: That’s a fly stereo system! |
In compounds
sophisticated, up-to-the-minute.
| Source Nov. 118: I just can’t believe that I’m seeing a video game with fly-ass beats, where rapping is the objective. |
see separate entry.
see fly cop n. (1)
a knowledgeable, aware, cunning person.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 22/4: Time was, when the Flycards, Downy-birds, and divers other wise men of this land could set an example to the whole world in the way of working up a profitable little bit of land speculation, but to-day there comes a tale from Queensland which shows that [...] we are but babes in the way of business. |
(US black) a hedonistic, fashionable young man.
| in Chicago Defender 13 June 7: Those flycats are trimming their lamps for viola. |
(US black) a hedonistic young woman who enjoys parties and her social life.
| in Chicago Defender 20 June 10: ‘Swede’ johnson, who are the two flychicks you’re taking to Gary Friday night. | |
| ‘47th St Jive’ 🎵 If you wanna meet the hipcat, oh yes, and the fly chick / Go up to 47th Street. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 29 June 19: The beauteous flychick Maceo is escorting about town. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 2: Every time one of those fly chicks slipped and got strung out [i.e. on crack], news traveled like a police nlotter. |
see separate entry.
(US) any fashionable automobile.
| (con. 1940s) ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Cop and blow [...] You slap yo’self a good, long peep at Kenny, boy. Check his action – he gots a fly crutch, a diff’rent zoot suit fo’ every piece o’ seven an’ a rep dat come through de slammer trey hours befo’ he slide in. Kenny’s secret be dat he cop an’ blow, keepin’ de green flow. |
see fly cop n. (1)
(UK Und.) pickpocketing; ? without a supporting gang.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 5/1: Some who were good at ‘stalling’ for the ‘dip’ in a ‘push’ were ‘rung’ for others who were used to ‘fly-dipping’. [Ibid.] 62/1: They were goin on the ‘fly-dip,’ and of course the rain would prevent the people from coming out. |
see fakir n. (2)
1. (also fly gee) a con-man’s victim who believes himself to be cleverer than he actually is [gee n.3 (1)].
| Sportsman 27 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [O]ne of those excessively ‘fly flats,’ who [...] signs himself ‘One who has never been Bitten’. | |
| Notes on Caucasus 241: It consists of pretended sales of timber, effected on the principle of the [...] confidence trick, etc.; the secret of all which is usually based on the victim being what cardsharpers, betting-men, etc., call a ‘fly flat’. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 376/2: Fly-flat (turf), one who really knows little or nothing about racing, but fancies himself thoroughly initiated in all its mysteries. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Dec. 8/1: Fools despise wisdom, but a fly flat takes the office, and often comes out on top. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 228: Mr. ‘Cutty’ Rayner, a sporting gentleman of the ‘fly-flat’ order. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 28 Feb. 4/5: The avarice of the dupes invariably tempts them to try to get something for nothing [...] Such fly-flats deserve little sympathy. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 30/3: May Yohe is another addition to the long list of actresses who, after ‘taking down’ every well-to-do fellow who ever got infatuated with them, have been eventually taken down themselves by a bounding adventurer. The actress and the barmaid are the representative female ‘fly-flats’ of this world. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 26 July 1/2: The keepers of these places generally run another illicit trade in conjunction with sly-grog selling, and the two combined for a most dangerous spider’s web for the fly-flat with money. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: A city sport recently struck trouble on the Wanneroo-road [when] he and his ‘fly flat’ mate picked out a farmer’s boy for abuse. | |
| City Of The World 267: That’s where your fly-flat comes a bloomer. He won’t admit as there’s a single move on the board – or under it – that he ain’t tumbled to. | |
| in Advertiser (Adelaide) 12 Apr. 24/7: A ‘fly flat’ is a simpleton who thinks himself tremendously shrew. | |
| Big Con 297: fly-gee. An outsider who understands confidence games, or who thinks he does. | |
| Horse’s Mouth (1948) 281: He was a fly-flat. |
2. in ext. use, anyone gullible.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 11/4: When owners, jockeys and sporting noblemen all regard stiff or ‘cronk’ running as a matter of course, the chance of the public – the mule-headed, fly-flat, old public that pays for this great game – is fairly poverty-smitten. |
3. (Aus.) a cheat.
| Sport (Adelaide) 27 Feb. 3/1: Hogan got busy [...] letting the flyflats reckon that he had not tumbled to their little games. So he gave them enough rope to hang themselves [and] two horses, two jockeys, and two trainers will be out of the play for a year . |
4. (US) a gun.
| in AS Oct. |
1. a prostitute.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. (US/UK black, also fly) a smart, attractive woman.
| ‘Live at the Audubon Ballroom’ 🎵 Fly girls, rock the house / Fly kids rock the house . | |
| ‘Rappin and Rockin the House’ 🎵 All the fly girls yelling, ‘take me’. | |
| ‘Live at Harlem World’ 🎵 What's up fly guys? Hello, fly girls. | |
| ‘The DMX Will Rock’ 🎵 We’re two fly girls sent straight from heaven / to rock to the beat for you 24:7. | |
| Deadmeat 237: Some red-skinned fly-girl in a right micro-mini. [Ibid.] 247: Bones [...] was now in a dark corner slow dancing with the sexy fly. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 153: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Threads. Dapper. Dipped. Clean. Sharp. Diva. Playa. Fly girl. Fly guy. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 2: I would try to impress those fly girls. |
(US) a wit, a ‘wisecracker’.
| On Broadway 13 Jan. [synd. col.] And didn’t we hear a fly guy mutter: ‘That’s what you call adding Insull to injury’. |
(US black) an attractive woman.
| ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 I ain’t got no bag ’bout hittin’ it wit’ a fly Jay who be chillin’ wit’ de red knight on de white horse. |
1. a private or plainclothes detective.
| Vocabulum. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 405/1: Sometimes we used to get nothing shoplifting; the men, perhaps, would notice—the fly-men, as we called them. They used to be too wide-awake for us. | |
| Stories of the Street and of the Town (1941) 100: Every policeman in uniform and every ‘fly’ man was on the lookout for a murderer. | |
| Autobiog. of a Thief 44: I ran up Seventh Avenue, but was caught by a flyman (policeman). |
2. a shrewd, cunning, usu. criminal man.
| About Some Fellows 10: What he wanted was a fly-man who knew something of elementary arithmetic. | |
| Jottings from Jail 31: London for sharpers, Brummagem for thieves, Paris for flymen, Sheffield for pitchers of snyde. | |
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 14: Amongst the frequenters of that ‘boozing ken,’ would also be [...] the ‘fly,’ or cadger who begs from ladies and gentlemen along the ‘tober’. | |
| London Town 310: Kendillon was known to the London ‘fancy’ as a good judge of dogs and a ‘fly man’. | |
| (con. 1920s) No Mean City 76: The other two ‘flymen’ made for the exit. | |
| Living Rough 163: He used to think he was a bit of a flyman. | |
| Horse’s Mouth (1948) 281: A fly man is a fly man, he spreads his wings and dives on his prey. | |
| ‘Burglar Cops’ in Men of the Und. 116: The police grew hot and sent Mr. F, a flyman, to get the rascals. |
3. an expert thief.
| Squeaker (1950) 118: That’s where you met the fly men and bought their sparklers. |
(UK Und.) one who is adept at escaping difficult situations, e.g. arrest.
| in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 27: ‘He's a rank scamp,’ said one — a gentleman sitting near to the chairman. ‘A wicked dummy hunter,’ said a second. ‘A fly mizzler!’ said a third. |
(UK Und.) a confidence trickster who poses as a gentleman.
| Enter the Saint 22: I’d give a hell of a lot to find out who he was. One of these fly mobsmen you read about, I shouldn’t wonder. He’d got all the dope. |
1. a detective.
| Times (Shreveport, LA) 12 May 3/5: He is ever under the watchful eye of his ‘jocker’ [...] to see that no harm comes to him and ‘pipe’ the ‘bulls’ and ‘fly mugs’ (police and others) when a ‘Hank Kelly’ (a farmer) ‘floats’ around. | |
| Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: The minions of the law [...] ‘cops,’ ‘mugs,’ ‘fly mugs,’ ‘bulls,’ ‘dicks’ (an abbreviation for detectives). | |
| ‘The Electric Warden’ Prison Stories Mar. 🌐 Them wuz fly-mugs, or Secret Service dicks. |
2. a railroad detective.
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/2: Fly mugs — Police officials. | |
| Prison Community (1940) 332/1: fly mug, n. A railroad detective. |
(UK Und.) a detective, a plainclothes policeman.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 67/1: Here I was met by Joe and his Judy, who enjoyed a hearty laugh at the outwitting of the two ‘fly peelers’. |
see fly cop n. (1)
(S.Afr. black) a form of urban slang used by streetwise young people.
| Dispossessed 250: Tsotsis have their own secret language known as flaaitaal or tsotsi slang, which is continually being improved on and added to. These flaaitaals differ from city to city and even in different parts of the cities [DSAE]. | |
| East Province Herald 1 May 3: [headline ] Rhodes Man researches tsotsi talk for thesis. ‘In my studies [...] I would like to focus [on] ‘fly taal’ the language of ‘hip’ city slickers.’ [DSAE]. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Frontline Dec. 17: If you know what’s good for you you’d better not call it tsotsi-taal. It’s Flytaal and proud of it. True flytalers react to the term tsotsi-taal. [...] Not that Flytaal is that different from tsotsi-taal, but it’s finding itself a new image [DSAE]. | |
| Oxford Companion to Eng. Lang. 408: Flytaal has many terms for money, clothing, and drugs, and many colourful modes of address. | |
| www.capeflats.org.za 🌐 Kapie-taal is not to be confused with what is known as ‘fly-taal’ or ‘tsotsi-taal’. The latter two are normally used to refer to the style of speaking adopted by township gangsters, and lately, by black yuppies. |
(US black) fashionable, sophisticated.
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: Jacks and Jills from the flytime cribs to the swells flats, the joint is jammed with rug cutting eats. |
In phrases
(US black) sophisticated.
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 9: When I peer into her peepers, mercy miss percy, I am sent one time, she ain’t no Mary Jo, but she’s on fly time. |
(US black) devoted to fashion.
| ‘Superfly’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 118: Dap sells to and negotiates with nightowl shoppers on the fly tip. |
(UK Und.) to explain a situation to someone; to make things clear.
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 64/2: In a second he was beside Doc., poking him ‘fly,’ we supposed, as to who we were. |
(Aus./UK Und.) to make (someone) aware.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
| Life in St George’s Fields 9: It may be as well [...] to put you fly to a thing or two. | |
| Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 54: I’ll have another touch at the Old Maid! I know all about her. Coachy has put me fly! | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 60: cracksman: If she was to tumble to you widding about her, she’d mug you like a shot. Wouldn’t she Sall? shake: Safe, and no nunks. She can slog and no flies, so help my squirter, if I doesn’t put her fly to it. | |
| Wild Boys of London I 296/2: I’ll put the slops fly to their game. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 13/1: Well, the fact is […] there’s nothin’ to be made ‘on the never’ now; there’s too many on the bloomin’ game. If you cop a mug out of the Metropolitan, and are just getting him away right, ’bout six or seven in the same line wants to stand in; and that puts the mug fly and chokes him off the push. |