fly the coop

1. To get away or escape: “The Hendersons found the cocktail party rather dull and decided to fly the coop.”

Idioms and Phrases

Escape, run away, as in After years of fighting with my mother, my father finally flew the coop . This term originally meant “escape from jail,” known as the coop in underworld slang since the late 1700s. [Late 1800s]

Related Words

• avoid
• depart
• disappear
• dodge
• elude
• emerge
• evade
• flee
• fly
• leave
• run
• slip
• slip away
• vanish