afly

English

Etymology

a- +‎ fly

Adjective

afly (not comparable)

1. Flying; moving freely through the air; blown by the wind.
   • 1895, Josephine Tyler, Ben’s Isabella‎^[1], Buffalo, NY: Charles Wells Moulton, Canto 12, p. 147:

     I tell you, Mister, such a family / With a sick husband, keep my hands afly;

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 5, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC, pages 64–65:

     Thus, the light switched on, there was Einhorn in his BVDs, wasted arms freckled, grizzled hair afly from his face that was inclined to flatness, the shrewd curved nose and clipped mustache.

   • 1983, Todd McEwen, chapter 12, in Fisher’s Hornpipe,‎^[2], New York: Harper & Row, page 198:

     Trench coat afly, hair touseled, face pink, although from exertion rather than inebriation.

   • 2002, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Light Music‎^[3], New York: EOS, page 95:

     The sagebrush fire sent orange sparks afly in the star-strewn sky and infused the still air with aromatic smoke.

Derived terms

• my skull's afly