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Flying colors   /flˈaɪɪŋ kˈələrz/   Listen
adjective
Flying  adj.  Moving in the air with, or as with, wings; moving lightly or rapidly; intended for rapid movement.
Flying army (Mil.) a body of cavalry and infantry, kept in motion, to cover its own garrisons and to keep the enemy in continual alarm.
Flying artillery (Mil.), artillery trained to rapid evolutions, the men being either mounted or trained to spring upon the guns and caissons when they change position.
Flying bridge, Flying camp. See under Bridge, and Camp.
Flying buttress (Arch.), a contrivance for taking up the thrust of a roof or vault which can not be supported by ordinary buttresses. It consists of a straight bar of masonry, usually sloping, carried on an arch, and a solid pier or buttress sufficient to receive the thrust. The word is generally applied only to the straight bar with supporting arch.
Flying colors, flags unfurled and waving in the air; hence:
To come off with flying colors, to be victorious; to succeed thoroughly in an undertaking.
Flying doe (Zool.), a young female kangaroo.
Flying dragon.
(a)
(Zool.) See Dragon, 6.
(b)
A meteor. See under Dragon.
Flying Dutchman.
(a)
A fabled Dutch mariner condemned for his crimes to sail the seas till the day of judgment.
(b)
A spectral ship.
Flying fish. (Zool.) See Flying fish, in the Vocabulary.
Flying fox (Zool.), see Flying fox in the vocabulary.
Flying frog (Zool.), either of two East Indian tree frogs of the genus Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus nigrapalmatus and Rhacophorus pardalis), having very large and broadly webbed feet, which serve as parachutes, and enable it to make very long leaps.
Flying gurnard (Zool.), a species of gurnard of the genus Cephalacanthus or Dactylopterus, with very large pectoral fins, said to be able to fly like the flying fish, but not for so great a distance. Note: Three species are known; that of the Atlantic is Cephalacanthus volitans.
Flying jib (Naut.), a sail extended outside of the standing jib, on the flying-jib boom.
Flying-jib boom (Naut.), an extension of the jib boom.
Flying kites (Naut.), light sails carried only in fine weather.
Flying lemur. (Zool.) See Colugo.
Flying level (Civil Engin.), a reconnoissance level over the course of a projected road, canal, etc.
Flying lizard. (Zool.) See Dragon, n. 6.
Flying machine, any apparatus for navigating through the air, especially a heavier-than-air machine. Flying mouse (Zool.), the opossum mouse (Acrobates pygmaeus), a marsupial of Australia. Called also feathertail glider. Note: It has lateral folds of skin, like the flying squirrels, and a featherlike tail. Flying party (Mil.), a body of soldiers detailed to hover about an enemy. Flying phalanger (Zool.), one of several species of small marsuupials of the genera Petaurus and Belideus, of Australia and New Guinea, having lateral folds like those of the flying squirrels. The sugar squirrel (Belideus sciureus), and the ariel (Belideus ariel), are the best known; called also squirrel petaurus and flying squirrel. See Sugar squirrel. Flying pinion, the fly of a clock. Flying sap (Mil.), the rapid construction of trenches (when the enemy's fire of case shot precludes the method of simple trenching), by means of gabions placed in juxtaposition and filled with earth. Flying shot, a shot fired at a moving object, as a bird on the wing. Flying spider. (Zool.) See Ballooning spider. Flying squid (Zool.), an oceanic squid (Ommastrephes Bartramii syn. Sthenoteuthis Bartramii), abundant in the Gulf Stream, which is able to leap out of the water with such force that it often falls on the deck of a vessel. Flying squirrel (Zool.) See Flying squirrel, in the Vocabulary. Flying start, a start in a sailing race in which the signal is given while the vessels are under way. Flying torch (Mil.), a torch attached to a long staff and used for signaling at night.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Flying colors" Quotes from Famous Books



... the hotel, with the ship's stewards assisting, but did not essay a second. Seven hundred in two relays would have tested the ability of Mr. Boldt, but still when the battle was over we had all had enough; in fact, the management came out with flying colors ...
— A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel • S. G. Bayne
... attain a point, carry a point, secure a point, win a point, win an object; get there [U.S.]; manage to, contrive to; accomplish &c (effect) (complete) 729; do wonders, work wonders; make a go of it. come off well, come off successful, come off with flying colors; make short work of; take by storm, carry by storm; bear away the bell; win one's wings, win one's spurs, win the battle; win the day, carry the day, gain the day, gain the prize, gain the palm; have the best of it, have it all one's own way, have the game in one's owns hands, have the ball at one's ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... so much native work and equipments, should be the first to which a British frigate should strike her colors was indeed a triumph. Though there were not wanting voices across the sea to say the Guerriere should have gone down with flying colors, but even that would ...
— A Little Girl in Old Boston • Amanda Millie Douglas
... Maynard; "let her fight it out. It's hard for her, but it's doing her real good, and bringing out the best side of her nature. We'll all help her all we can, and if I'm not greatly mistaken our Marjorie will come out of this ordeal with flying colors." ...
— Marjorie's New Friend • Carolyn Wells
... as well state that I came off with flying colors, earning the precious privilege, so ardently desired, of being enrolled among those ready for duty and to be trusted. My patient recovered, and returned to his command, the —— Mississippi Regiment. His name was D. Babers, and twenty years after the war I met him once more,—a stalwart, ...
— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers
... Nieuport, on the Somme, and in the Champagne. The troops which had been fighting for three years showed outwardly no sign of the terrible ordeals they had undergone, holding themselves proudly erect as they passed the saluting base amid the strains of military music and flying colors. General Petain, who believed in treating his men as if they were his own sons, commended their bravery and thanked them in the name of the Republic for the brilliant example they had set to ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... Southern one, for instance, who might use some of the flying colors that were always warranted to run when our boys got after yours in the late war," responds EDWIN, to whom his attentive uncle has also poured out some more ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 14, July 2, 1870 • Various
... kept myself fit," is a keynote of his life. The puny boy of the long ago was to survive this campaign with flying colors, and to lend his counsel in the Great War of our own time. It was a long life and full of service. In an address to a children's school, when a man of eighty, he summed up his creed ...
— Boys' Book of Famous Soldiers • J. Walker McSpadden


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