Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Fly-by-night   /flaɪ-baɪ-naɪt/   Listen
Fly-by-night

noun
1.
A debtor who flees to avoid paying.
adjective
1.
(of businesses and businessmen) unscrupulous.  Synonym: shady.
2.
Ephemeral.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Fly-by-night" Quotes from Famous Books



... Molly to tell them in my letters, whether it would be possible for them, with a motor, to go by some of the routes which I chose. Over the St. Bernard from Martigny to the Hospice they could not have ventured, even in the stealthy, fly-by-night manner in which they had "done" the St. Gothard and the Simplon; for on the St. Bernard the road was always narrow, often stony and dangerous. Beyond, on the other side, even carriages cannot yet pass, descending to Aosta, though in another year the new ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... His Fly-by-night Excellency arrived in town I was very drunk. You will excuse the pride with which I state that fact; but it was quite a feat for me to attain that desirable state. Somebody had left a cot out under the orange trees in the yard of Madama Ortiz's hotel. I stepped over the wall, ...
— Cabbages and Kings • O. Henry

... "These members of my staff are all trusted Haer employees, Captain Mauser. They are not fly-by-night freelancers hired for a week ...
— Mercenary • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... was Purdy's growing fellowship with the rebel faction. The boy was too young and still too much of a fly-by-night to have a black mark set against his name. It would be the more absurd, considering that his sincerity in espousing the diggers' cause was far from proved. He was of a nature to ride tantivy into anything that promised excitement ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... wrong?" said the baron. "What do you mean by great wrong? Would you have had her married to a wild fly-by-night, that accident made an earl and nature a deer-stealer? that has not wit enough to eat venison without picking a quarrel with monarchy? that flings away his own lands into the clutches of rascally friars, for the sake of hunting in other men's grounds, and feasting ...
— Maid Marian • Thomas Love Peacock



Copyright © 2025 e-Free Translation.com