Fly vs Play - What's the difference?
fly | play |
(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= (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= 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
(obsolete) A parasite.
To travel through the air, another gas or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (ambitransitive, archaic, poetic) To flee, to escape (from).
* (John Dryden)
* (William Shakespeare)
* (William Shakespeare)
* (John Milton)
*
(ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To be accepted, come about or work out.
To travel very fast.
* (John Milton)
* Bryant
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs, work=BBC Sport
, title= To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
To hunt with a hawk.
(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:
* , chapter=16
, title= *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.
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.
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.
(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.
(baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
(slang, dated) Quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).
(slang) Well dressed, smart in appearance.
(slang) Beautiful; displaying physical beauty.
(lb) To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
:
*2001 , Annabelle Sabloff, Reordering the Natural World , Univ. of Toronto Press, p.83:
*:A youngstergo on vacation, play in the same way that he did with his friends, and so on.
*2003 , Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont et al. (eds.), Joining Society: Social Interaction and Learning in Adolescence and Youth , Cambridge Univ. Press, p.52:
*:We had to play for an hour, so that meant that we didn't have time to play and joke around.
(lb) To perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).
:
#(lb) To compete against, in a game.
#*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 12, work=BBC Sport
, title= (label) To take part in amorous activity; to make love, fornicate; to have sex.
*1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.iv:
*:Her proper face / I not descerned in that darkesome shade, / But weend it was my loue, with whom he playd .
(lb) To act as the indicated role, especially in a performance.
:
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= To produce music or theatre.
# To produce music.
#*2007 , Dan Erlewine, Guitar Player Repair Guide (ISBN 0879309210), page 220:
#*:If your guitar plays well on fretted strings but annoys you on the open ones, the nut's probably worn out.
# To produce music using a musical instrument.
#:
# To produce music (or a specified song or musical style) using (a specified musical instrument).
#:
# To use a device to watch or listen to the indicated recording.
#:
# to be shown.
#:
# To perform in or at; to give performances in or at.
#*2008 , My Life: From Normandy to Hockeytown (ISBN 0966412087), p.30:
#*:I got a hold of Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong's agent and I explained to him on the phone that, "I know you're playing' London on Wednesday night. Why don't you come and ' play the Arena in Windsor on Saturday night?"
#(lb) To act or perform (a play).
#:
(lb) To behave in a particular way.
#(lb) Contrary to fact, to give an appearance of being.
#*(rfdate) Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
#*:Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt.
#*1985 , Sharon S. Brehm, Intimate Relationships :
#*:Playing hard to get is not the same as slamming the door in someone's face.
#*1996 , Michael P. Malone, James J Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest :
#*:Now, surveying his final link, he had the nice advantage of being able to play coy with established port cities that desperately wanted his proven railroad.
#*2003 , John U. Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement , p.194:
#*:Instead, they played dumb, remained silent, and did their classwork.
#(lb) To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless.
#*(rfdate) Sir (1628–1699):
#*:Men are apt to play with their healths.
#(lb) To act; to behave; to practice deception.
#*(rfdate) (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616):
#*:His mother played false with a smith.
#(lb) To bring into sportive or wanton action; to exhibit in action; to execute.
#:
#*(rfdate) (John Milton) (1608-1674):
#*:Nature here / Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will / Her virgin fancies.
#*
#*:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
(lb) To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate.
:
*(rfdate) (1671-1743):
*:The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play .
*
*:The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.
(lb) To move gaily; to disport.
*(rfdate) (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616):
*:even as the waving sedges play with wind
*(rfdate) (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719):
*:The setting sun / Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets.
*(rfdate) (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744):
*:All fame is foreign but of true desert, / Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
(lb) To put in action or motion.
:
(lb) To keep in play, as a hooked fish, in order to land it.
Activity for amusement only, especially among the young.
* Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
(uncountable) Similar activity, in young animals, as they explore their environment and learn new skills.
(uncountable, ethology) "Repeated, incompletely functional behavior differing from more serious versions ..., and initiated voluntarily when ... in a low-stress setting."
The conduct, or course of a game.
(countable) An individual's performance in a sport or game.
(countable) (turn-based games ) An action carried out when it is one's turn to play.
(countable) A literary composition, intended to be represented by actors impersonating the characters and speaking the dialogue.
(countable) A theatrical performance featuring actors.
(countable) A major move by a business.
(countable) A geological formation that contains an accumulation or prospect of hydrocarbons or other resources.
(uncountable) The extent to which a part of a mechanism can move freely.
(uncountable, informal) Sexual role-playing.
* 1996 , Sabrina P Ramet, Gender reversals and gender cultures
* 1996 , "toptigger", (on Internet newsgroup alt.personals.spanking.punishment )
* 2013 , Rachel Kramer Bussel, Best Bondage Erotica 2014
* 2014 , Jiri T. Servant, Facts About Bondage - Bondage Guide For Beginners
(countable) A button that, when pressed, causes media to be played.
As nouns the difference between fly and play
is that fly is (zoology) any insect of the order diptera; characterized by having two wings, also called true flies or fly can be (obsolete) the action of flying; flight while play is activity for amusement only, especially among the young.As verbs the difference between fly and play
is that fly is to travel through the air, another gas or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface or fly can be (baseball) to hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out compare ground (verb) and line (verb) while play is (lb) to act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.As an adjective fly
is (slang|dated) quick-witted, alert, mentally sharp, smart (in a mental sense).fly
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Cognate with Scots flee, Dutch vlieg, German Fliege, Swedish fluga.Noun
(flies)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.}}
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 .}}
- a trifling fly , none of your great familiars
- (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 flyExternal links
* (wikipedia) * (Muscidae)Etymology 2
From (etyl) flien, from (etyl) . More at flow.Verb
- Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
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, […].}}
- Sleep flies the wretch.
- to fly the favours of so good a king
- Whither shall I fly to escape their hands?
- 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.
- The brave black flag I fly .
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.}}
- Fly , envious Time, till thou run out thy race.
- The dark waves murmured as the ships flew on.
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.}}
- (Francis Bacon)
Synonyms
* (travel through air) soar, hover, wing, skim, glide, ascend, rise, float, aviate * (flee) escape, flee, abscondAntonyms
* (travel through air) walk * (flee) remain, stayDerived 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 * overflyNoun
(flies)- As we left the house in my fly , which had been waiting, Van Helsing said:— ‘Tonight I can sleep in peace [...].’
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.”}}
- (Totten)
- (Knight)
- (Knight)
Derived terms
* flyman * fly-coach * fly systemVerb
- Jones flied to right in his last at-bat.
Etymology 3
Origin uncertain; probably from the verb or noun.Adjective
(er)- 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
)
- He's pretty fly .
play
English
Verb
(en verb)International friendly: England 1-0 Spain, passage=England will not be catapulted among the favourites for Euro 2012 as a result of this win, but no victory against Spain is earned easily and it is right they take great heart from their efforts as they now prepare to play Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday.}}
Katrina G. Claw
Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.}}
Noun
- She was fond of all boys' plays , and greatly preferred cricket
- We saw a two-act play in the theatre.
- No wonder the fanbelt is slipping: there’s too much play in it.
- Too much play in a steering wheel may be dangerous.
- The rarity of male domination in fantasy play is readily explained.
- Palm Springs M seeks sane F 4 safe bdsm play
- There were none of the usual restrictions on public nudity or sexual interaction in the club environment. Still, the night was young, and as he'd made his way to the bar to order Mistress Ramona a gin and tonic, he'd seen little in the way of play .
- This type of play allows some people to relax and enjoy being given pleasure without having to think about giving pleasure back at the same time.