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Pliest vs Fliest - What's the difference?

pliest | fliest |

As a verb pliest

is archaic second-person singular of ply.

As an adjective fliest is

superlative of fly.

pliest

English

Verb

(head)
  • (archaic) (ply)

    • ply

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (plies)
  • A layer of material.
  • A strand that, twisted together with other strands, makes up yarn or rope.
  • (colloquial) Plywood.
  • (artificial intelligence, game theory) In two-player sequential games, a "half-turn", or one move made by one of the players.
    • He proposed to build Deep Purple, a super-computer capable of 24-ply look-ahead for chess.
  • State, condition.
  • * 1749 , John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure , Penguin 1985, p. 66:
    • You may be sure, in the ply I was now taking, I had no objection to the proposal, and was rather a-tiptoe for its accomplishment.
    Derived terms
    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , see Etymololgy 1.

    Verb

  • to .
  • * L'Estrange
    • The willow plied , and gave way to the gust.
  • to .
    • Derived terms
    * plier (agent noun) * pliers

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

  • To ly.
    • He plied his trade as carpenter for forty-three years.
  • * Waller
    • Their bloody task, unwearied, still they ply .
  • To work diligently.
  • * Milton
    • Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily).
  • * Addison
    • He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter.
  • To vigorously.
    • He plied his ax with bloody results.
  • To ly.
    • ply the seven seas
    A steamer plies between certain ports.
  • To in offering.
  • * 1929 , , Chapter VII, Section vi
    • Esther began to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.
    She plied him with liquor.
  • To press upon; to urge importunately.
    • to ply one with questions, with solicitations, or with drink
  • * Shakespeare
    • He plies the duke at morning and at night.
  • To employ diligently; to use steadily.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Go ply thy needle; meddle not.
  • (nautical) To work to windward; to beat.

    • fliest

    English

    Adjective

    (head)
  • (fly)

    • Anagrams

    *

    fly

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Cognate with Scots flee, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege, Swedish fluga.

    Noun

    (flies)
  • (zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
    • , author=Douglas Larson, volume=100, issue=1, page=46, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Runaway Devils Lake , passage=Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies . […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.}}
  • (non-technical) Especially , any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
  • * , chapter=5
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies .}}
  • Any similar, but unrelated insect such as dragonfly or butterfly.
  • (fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
  • (weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
  • (obsolete) A witch's familiar.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • a trifling fly , none of your great familiars
  • (obsolete) A parasite.
    • (Massinger)
    Derived terms
    * blackfly * blowfly * botfly * caddis fly * cranefly * damselfly * dragonfly * drain fly * firefly * fly agaric * fly on the wall * flyswatter * flyweight * fruit fly * gadfly * greenfly * horsefly * housefly * hoverfly * march fly * mayfly * moth fly * no flies on * sandfly, sand fly * sawfly * warble fly * whitefly * wouldn't hurt a fly

    External links

    * (wikipedia) * (Muscidae)

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) flien, from (etyl) . More at flow.

    Verb

  • To travel through the air, another gas or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
  • *
    • Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= On a bright new wing , passage=Flying using only the power of the sun is an enticing prospect. But manned solar-powered aircraft are fragile and slow, […].}}
  • (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).
  • * (John Dryden)
    • Sleep flies the wretch.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • to fly the favours of so good a king
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Whither shall I fly to escape their hands?
  • * (John Milton)
    • Fly , ere evil intercept thy flight.
  • *
    • He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss. “Fly , you fools!” he cried, and was gone.
  • (ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
  • *
    • The brave black flag I fly .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= On a bright new wing , passage=A solar-powered unmanned aerial system (a UAS, more commonly called a drone) could fly long, lonely missions that conventional aircraft would not be capable of.}}
  • To be accepted, come about or work out.
  • To travel very fast.
  • * (John Milton)
    • Fly , envious Time, till thou run out thy race.
  • * Bryant
    • The dark waves murmured as the ships flew on.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , passage=After yet another missed penalty by Kvirikashvili from bang in front of the posts, England scored again, centre Tuilagi flying into the line and touching down under the bar.}}
  • To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
  • To hunt with a hawk.
    • (Francis Bacon)
    Synonyms
    * (travel through air) soar, hover, wing, skim, glide, ascend, rise, float, aviate * (flee) escape, flee, abscond
    Antonyms
    * (travel through air) walk * (flee) remain, stay
    Derived terms
    * fly a kite * fly-by-night * fly into a rage * fly like a bird * fly like a rock * fly like the wind * fly off the handle * fly out the window * on the fly * overfly
    Related terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (flies)
  • (obsolete) The action of flying; flight.
  • An act of flying.
  • (baseball) A fly ball.
  • A type of small, fast carriage (sometimes pluralised flys).
  • * 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) , Folio Society 2008, p. 124:
    • As we left the house in my fly , which had been waiting, Van Helsing said:— ‘Tonight I can sleep in peace [...].’
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly , about anything.”}}
  • *1924 , (Ford Madox Ford), Some Do Not…'', Penguin 2012 (''Parade's End ), p. 54:
  • *:And, driving back in the fly , Macmaster said to himself that you couldn't call Mrs. Duchemin ordinary, at least.
  • A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
  • A strip of material hiding the zipper, buttons etc. at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.
  • The free edge of a flag.
  • The horizontal length of a flag.
  • Butterfly, a form of swimming.
  • (weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
  • The part of a vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
  • (nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
    • (Totten)
  • Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.
  • A heavy wheel, or cross arms with weights at the ends on a revolving axis, to regulate or equalize the motion of machinery by means of its inertia, where the power communicated, or the resistance to be overcome, is variable, as in the steam engine or the coining press. See fly wheel.
  • In a knitting machine, the piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
    • (Knight)
  • The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
  • (weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
    • (Knight)
  • (printing, historical) The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
  • (printing, historical) A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
  • One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.
    • Derived terms
    * flyman * fly-coach * fly system

    Verb

  • (baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
    • Jones flied to right in his last at-bat.

    Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).
    • be assured, O man of sin—pilferer of small wares and petty larcener—that there is an eye within keenly glancing from some loophole contrived between accordions and tin breastplates that watches your every movement, and is "fly,"— to use a term peculiarly comprehensible to dishonest minds—to the slightest gesture of illegal conveyancing. (Charles Dickens, "Arcadia"; Household Words Vol.7 p.381)
  • (slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance.
    • He's pretty fly .
  • (slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.