soar
/sɔː
/verb [no object]
1Fly or rise high in the air: the bird spread its wings and soared into the air figurative when she heard his voice, her spirits soared...
- The Greek fans oohed as it soared through the air, then roared when it was caught.
- In the distance, beyond a shallow bend, a football soared into the air.
- She hoped that his heart soared into the starry sky beside hers.
Synonyms
fly up, wing, wing its way;
take off, take flight, take to the air;
ascend, climb, rise, mount
1.1Maintain height in the air without flapping wings or using engine power: the gulls soared on the summery winds...
- Their broad wings allow them to soar, gull-like, flapping with strong, slow wing-beats.
- The buzzard, soaring at a great height, suddenly finds itself caught up in a current of air against which it is impossible to battle.
- Sometimes they soar at a considerable height, but when fishing they fly fairly low or even very close to the surface.
Synonyms
glide, plane, float, drift, wheel, hang, hover
1.2Increase rapidly above the usual level: the cost of living continued to soar (as adjective soaring) the soaring crime rate...
- Opium production has soared to record levels, and farmers continue to be reluctant to plant crops that pay buttons by comparison.
- I scrabbled around in my bag, my panic levels soaring.
- Prices have nearly doubled in the past year, soaring to their highest levels since 1988.
Synonyms
increase rapidly, shoot up, rise rapidly, escalate, spiral upwards
informal go through the ceiling, go through the roof, skyrocket
Derivatives
soarer
- Frigatebirds are noted soarers, spending much of the day riding the winds and roosting at night on trees or cliffs.
- With large, broad wings, they are excellent aerial soarers and gliders.
- But one suspects that the really big pterosaurs were dynamic soarers and spent an awful lot of time on the wing.
soaringly
- When ‘The Divine Husband’ isn't an exercise in clever variations on trivial themes, it is engaging and soaringly lyrical.
- There are bigger household names from this era than hers, but none with a sound this soaringly satisfying.
- The song is certainly not without merit, in particular its soaringly memorable chorus and some nice guitar figures towards the end.
Origin
Late Middle English: shortening of Old French essorer, based on Latin ex- 'out of' + aura 'breeze'.
Soar is a shortening of Old French essorer, ‘to rise into the air’ based on the Latin elements ex- ‘out of, from’ and aura ‘breeze’.