fly in the face of

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

fly in the face of (third-person singular simple present flies in the face of, present participle flying in the face of, simple past flew in the face of, past participle flown in the face of)

1. (idiomatic) To act in a manner highly contrary to; to counteract or contradict.

   The new design is very edgy and certainly flies in the face of tradition.

   • 2024 October 30, Andy Comfort, “Can the Royal Mail trains keep on running?”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 60:

     DB Cargo is clearly upset by the Royal Mail decision. Not only will it lose a valuable customer, but this flies in the face of its own high-profile campaign, called Freight Belongs on Rail.