fley

American  

[fley] / fleɪ /

verb

Chiefly Scot.

fleyed, fleying

1. to frighten; terrify.

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fley British  

/ fleɪ /

verb

1. to be afraid or cause to be afraid

2. (tr) to frighten away; scare

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Other Word Forms

• fleyedly adverb
• fleyedness noun

Etymology

Origin of fley

1175–1225; Middle English flaien, fleien, Old English -flīgan (in ā-flȳgan ); cognate with Old Norse fleygia to cause to fly. fly ²

Example Sentences

“It will hae been some callant trying to fley us, that’s a’.

From Tales from Blackwood Volume 4 by Various

Let's hope you're a better guide than constable, young man, or, as that old fellow said in the road this morning, we'll fley the bird and not grip him.

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

Sigrun asks Helge: Hverir lata fljota fley vid backa, hvar hermegir heima eigud?

From Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 1 of 3 Gods and Goddesses of the Northland by Ph.D.

Waefu' Want and Hunger fley me, Glowrin' by the hallan en'; Sair I fecht them at the door, But aye I'm eerie they come ben.

From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Burns, Robert

Have you not reason to waye that whatsoever ether Virgil did write of his gnatt or Ovid of his fley was all covertly to declare abuse?...

From Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism by Clark, Donald Lemen