| 释义 |
▪ I. high-flying, n.
1. lit. Flying to a great height; lofty flight.
1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xlv. 176 In the high flying of Falcons and Vultures.
2. Aiming high; lofty pretension.
1681Dryden Epil. to Lee's P'cess Cleves 6 Never was man worse thought on for high-flying.
3. The principles of high-flyers (sense 3).
1730Swift Vind. Ld. Carteret Wks. 1841 II. 115/1 To read pamphlets against religion and high-flying.
▪ II. ˈhigh-flying, a.
1. lit. That flies high, as a bird.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 39 Who wing their thoughts with such high-flying feathers. 1810Wordsw. Sonn., ‘A Roman Master’, Birds, high-flying in the element.
†b. transf. Swift. (Cf. high-flyer 4.) Obs.
c1710Banbury Apes (ed. 3) 3 A Messenger (on a High-flying Sorrel Horse).
2. Soaring high in notions, aims, ambitions, etc.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 23 That high flying liberty of conceit proper to the Poet. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Jas. V, Wks. (1711) 82 A man in the prime of his youth, of high-flying thoughts by his alliance with the king of England. 1692tr. Sallust 245 With their lofty strains and high flying Language. 1793Beddoes Calculus p. vi, My hopes of the future improvement of medicine too high-flying. 1878Spurgeon Serm. XXIV. 629 Little duties are almost too insignificant for such high-flying spiritual professors.
3. Making or upholding lofty claims for authority in church or state; holding the principles of the high-flyers.
1695Enq. Anc. Const. Eng. 32 Some high-flying Gentlemen, who if they could would make us all slaves to the King's absolute will. 1709Refl. Sacheverell's Serm. 24 The High-flying Faction may call themselves Churchmen as long as they please. 1751Carlyle in Ramsay Remin. iii. (1870) 64 Webster, leader of the high-flying party. 1772H. Walpole Last Jrnls. (1859) I. 40 Not indeed that high-flying Church under Bancroft and Laud, but the mild Church under Tillotson. 1792T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 463 Gouverneur Morris, a high-flying monarchy man. 1897A. Birrell in Indep. & Nonconf. Jubilee No., A great mortification to the high-flying Anglican who cannot bring himself to believe that there can be two Churches within the same realm at one and the same time.
b. Extreme; making high claims for something.
1876Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 186 How horrified some high-flying æsthetic men will be. |