night-flyingadj.
/ˈnʌɪtˌflʌɪɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈnaɪtˈflaɪɪŋ/ Esp. of an animal: that flies at night.
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the world > animals > by locomotion > [adjective] > flying > at night
night-flyinga1593
a1593 C. Marlowe tr. Ovid Elegies i. vi Forth-with loue came, no darke night flying spright, Nor hands prepar'd to slaughter, me affright.
?a1656 J. Poole Eng. Parnassus (1657) 57 Bat. Ambiguous, neutral, melancholy, night-flying [etc.].
1831 J. Rennie Montagu's Ornithol. Dict. (ed. 2) 337 Nocturnal moths and other night-flying insects.
1866 W. E. Shuckard Brit. Bees 13 I am not aware of a single instance of a night-flying bee.
1890 Catholic World Mar. 770 The light of the glow-worm and fire fly..is a sign to night-flying insectivorous birds that they are not eatable.
1938 A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 4) 88 In night-flying insects there is a structure termed the tapetum which reflects the light that has entered the eyes.
1952 W. A. Beatty Unique to Austral. 63 This spider comes out at night to feed upon night-flying moths.
1991 Tucson (Arizona) Weekly 7 Aug. 13/1 Participants get a closer look at nocturnal creatures, venomous arthropods and night-flying insects, bats and owls.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.a1593