on the fly

See also: on-the-fly

English

Alternative forms

• on-the-fly (adjective)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adverb

on the fly (not comparable)

1. (baseball, of the ball) While in the air, without having touched the ground.

   Synonym: in flight

   Jones caught the ball on the fly.

2. (idiomatic) Spontaneously or extemporaneously; done as one goes, or during another activity.

   Synonyms: in flight, on the wing; on the spot; on the hoof (Britain)

   Hypernym: dynamically

   The software program has a table of values for some results, but calculates others on the fly.

3. (slang) On the move.
   • 1966, “Cool McCool (theme song)”, Bernie Green (music) (Cool McCool (television series)), performed by Bob McFadden:

     The Owl is flying high, frightening to the eye.
     The Rattler is nearby, Cool is on the fly.
     Danger is his business.

Derived terms

• OTFE, on-the-fly encryption

Related terms

• fly by the seat of one's pants

Translations

while in the air

• Catalan: al vol
• Danish: i farten, i skyndingen
• Finnish: lennosta
• French: à la volée (fr)
• Portuguese: sem sobressaltos
• Russian: на лету́ (ru) (na letú)
• Spanish: al vuelo (es)
• Swedish: i flykten, på lyra
• Turkish: uçarken

spontaneously or extemporaneously

• Finnish: lennosta
• French: à la volée (fr), sur le fly (fr)
• German: in Eile (de), spontan (de), unvorbereitet (de), ohne Vorbereitung, fliegend (de), auf die Schnelle (de), improvisiert (de)
• Polish: w locie
• Russian: на лету́ (ru) (na letú)
• Spanish: al vuelo (es), a vuelapluma, sobre la marcha, a vuela
• Swedish: i flykten
• Turkish: anında (tr), hazırlıksız (tr)