Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Unreliable or unscrupulous, especially with regard to business dealings.
- adjective Of an impermanent or insubstantial nature.
- noun An unreliable or unscrupulous person.
- noun One, such as a company, that is short-lived and therefore unreliable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A jib set like a studding-sail; a squaresail set on some sloops when running before the wind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A creature which flies at night; a
nocturnal flier ortraveler . - noun One who departs or flees at night in order to avoid
creditors , law enforcement etc. (often used attributively). - noun idiomatic, derogatory A person or business that
appears anddisappears rapidly , or gives an impression oftransience . - noun idiomatic, derogatory A traveling
businessman ortradesman .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a debtor who flees to avoid paying
- adjective (of businesses and businessmen) unscrupulous
- adjective ephemeral
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
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Apple is more than just pretty hardware and a fly-by-night company that builds products for one quarter in advance.
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
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Inside the FA, lots of progressive folk battle against entrenched empire builders whose reluctance to cede power makes Hosni Mubarak look like a fly-by-night.
Advance of the Premier League has rendered English football impotent | Paul Hayward 2011
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In five essays loosely stitched together, Mr. Deb encounters, among others, a fly-by-night business-school operator in Delhi and a software engineer in Bangalore, impoverished peasants and factory workers in Andhra Pradesh, and a waitress at one of Delhi's upscale new restaurants.
Beautiful and Damned, or Just Dazed and Confused? Sadanand Dhume 2011
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"This is necessary in order to avoid fly-by-night, reckless and excitable flexing of muscles and decisions that overlook certain fundamentals that could irreparably harm the nerve-center of our recovering economy."
Zimbabwe gives foreign firms 14-day ultimatum Reuters 2011
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Incidentally, Stritch is the kind of fastidious arranger who knows enough to forget about reprising as many familiar and unfamiliar songs as possible, many of them stuffed into fly-by-night medleys.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters David Finkle 2011
reesetee commented on the word fly-by-night
Originally a nautical term describing a large sail that was used only for sailing downwind, thus requiring little attention.
December 11, 2007