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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

fly the coop en · VERB

Etymology

From fly, to flee or run away, + coop, an enclosure for birds.

Meanings

  1. (figuratively) To depart hastily or unannounced; to escape or flee.
    • By the time the disk was out, most of Smith had apparently flown the coop; only Gayle and Jerry remained 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 243:
    • I think even Ruth looked over there when she was thinking about flying the coop. 2023, Sam Esmail, Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind, spoken by G.H. Scott:
    • Not liking the accommodations, I took the first chance and flew the coop. 1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 3, in A Texas Ranger:
  2. (of a bird) To escape from a pen or similar enclosure.
    • Explained a Curtiz assistant: "We had three ravens in Assisi; one died of cold, and another flew the coop." 1961 January 6, “Assisi Revisited”, in Time:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
flew the coop Tense=Past lexicographic
flies the coop Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
flown the coop Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
flying the coop Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Relateds

fly the nest

Translations (2)

de die Fliege machen (to depart hastily or flee) · de entfliegen (the escape of a bird from an enclosure)