aflight

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ flight.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈflaɪt/

Adjective

aflight (not comparable)

1. Flying.

   Synonym: in flight

   • 1874, Ambrose Bierce (as Dod Grile), “The Legend of Immortal Truth” in Cobwebs, London: “Fun” Office, ca. 1884, p. 114,^[1]

     Then, like a rocket set aflight, / She sprang, and streaked it for the light!

   • 1930, John R. McMahon, chapter 8, in The Wright Brothers‎^[2], Boston: Little, Brown, page 150:

     The elderly Pollyana of the infant aviation had photographs of their glider of 1902 aflight at Kitty Hawk.

   • 2020, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi‎^[3], New York: Bloomsbury, Part 2, p. 39:

     […] the Vestibule was full of birds and the birds were all aflight.

2. Covered or filled (with something flying).
   • 1965, A. R. Ammons, “Gain”, in Collected Poems, 1951-1971‎^[4], New York: Norton, page 199:

     curved attics aflight with / angels

   • 1967, Elspeth Huxley, chapter 15, in Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey through Australia,‎^[5], New York: William Morrow, page 311:

     In the distance the billabong was white with egrets and aflight with ducks;

   • 1968, John Irving, Setting Free the Bears‎^[6], New York: Ballantine Books, published 1970, Part 3, p. 362:

     [I] saw a stream of animals, hooved, padded, clawed and dashing, splashing through the ponds for Various Aquatic Birds, setting the night aflight—

3. Fleeing.
   • 1915, Marvin M. Taylor, “The Roll of the War Drums” in Donald Tulloch (ed.), Songs and Poems of the Great World War, Worcester, MA: Davis Press, p. 17,^[7]

     Like shepherdless sheep from wolves aflight

   • 1964, Allan Vaughan Elston, chapter 12, in The Landseekers,‎^[8], Philadelphia: Lippincott, page 121:

     The five now aflight from Massacre Canyon would have posses beating the bush for them.

4. (obsolete) Showing distress, anxiety or other strong emotion.

   Synonyms: anxious, distressed, moved, troubled, unsettled

   • 1547, uncredited translator, A Simple, and Religious Consultation by Hermann of Wied, London: John Day, “Of the crosse, and aflictions,”^[9]

     […] when the crosse, and afliction cometh vpon them, their mynde is aflight, it considereth not that the thynges, whiche it suffereth, be the scourges of Goddes wrath,

   • 1817, anonymous (attributed to James Athearn Jones), Hardenbrass and Haverill, London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Volume 2, Chapter 1, p. 7,^[10]

     “ […] I dare not leave her without locking the door; for the poor thing is quite aflight, and talks about nothing but guns and swords, and bloody knives, and rapes, and other weapons.”

   • 1837, Robert McCracken, “The Indian Excitement”, in Original Miscellaneous Poems‎^[11], 2nd edition, Pontiac, Michigan, page 47:

     I made this in the night, / When my mind was aflight,