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Flying Dutchman   /flˈaɪɪŋ dˈətʃmən/   Listen
adjective
Flying  adj.  Moving in the air with, or as with, wings; moving lightly or rapidly; intended for rapid movement.
Flying army (Mil.) a body of cavalry and infantry, kept in motion, to cover its own garrisons and to keep the enemy in continual alarm.
Flying artillery (Mil.), artillery trained to rapid evolutions, the men being either mounted or trained to spring upon the guns and caissons when they change position.
Flying bridge, Flying camp. See under Bridge, and Camp.
Flying buttress (Arch.), a contrivance for taking up the thrust of a roof or vault which can not be supported by ordinary buttresses. It consists of a straight bar of masonry, usually sloping, carried on an arch, and a solid pier or buttress sufficient to receive the thrust. The word is generally applied only to the straight bar with supporting arch.
Flying colors, flags unfurled and waving in the air; hence:
To come off with flying colors, to be victorious; to succeed thoroughly in an undertaking.
Flying doe (Zool.), a young female kangaroo.
Flying dragon.
(a)
(Zool.) See Dragon, 6.
(b)
A meteor. See under Dragon.
Flying Dutchman.
(a)
A fabled Dutch mariner condemned for his crimes to sail the seas till the day of judgment.
(b)
A spectral ship.
Flying fish. (Zool.) See Flying fish, in the Vocabulary.
Flying fox (Zool.), see Flying fox in the vocabulary.
Flying frog (Zool.), either of two East Indian tree frogs of the genus Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus nigrapalmatus and Rhacophorus pardalis), having very large and broadly webbed feet, which serve as parachutes, and enable it to make very long leaps.
Flying gurnard (Zool.), a species of gurnard of the genus Cephalacanthus or Dactylopterus, with very large pectoral fins, said to be able to fly like the flying fish, but not for so great a distance. Note: Three species are known; that of the Atlantic is Cephalacanthus volitans.
Flying jib (Naut.), a sail extended outside of the standing jib, on the flying-jib boom.
Flying-jib boom (Naut.), an extension of the jib boom.
Flying kites (Naut.), light sails carried only in fine weather.
Flying lemur. (Zool.) See Colugo.
Flying level (Civil Engin.), a reconnoissance level over the course of a projected road, canal, etc.
Flying lizard. (Zool.) See Dragon, n. 6.
Flying machine, any apparatus for navigating through the air, especially a heavier-than-air machine. Flying mouse (Zool.), the opossum mouse (Acrobates pygmaeus), a marsupial of Australia. Called also feathertail glider. Note: It has lateral folds of skin, like the flying squirrels, and a featherlike tail. Flying party (Mil.), a body of soldiers detailed to hover about an enemy. Flying phalanger (Zool.), one of several species of small marsuupials of the genera Petaurus and Belideus, of Australia and New Guinea, having lateral folds like those of the flying squirrels. The sugar squirrel (Belideus sciureus), and the ariel (Belideus ariel), are the best known; called also squirrel petaurus and flying squirrel. See Sugar squirrel. Flying pinion, the fly of a clock. Flying sap (Mil.), the rapid construction of trenches (when the enemy's fire of case shot precludes the method of simple trenching), by means of gabions placed in juxtaposition and filled with earth. Flying shot, a shot fired at a moving object, as a bird on the wing. Flying spider. (Zool.) See Ballooning spider. Flying squid (Zool.), an oceanic squid (Ommastrephes Bartramii syn. Sthenoteuthis Bartramii), abundant in the Gulf Stream, which is able to leap out of the water with such force that it often falls on the deck of a vessel. Flying squirrel (Zool.) See Flying squirrel, in the Vocabulary. Flying start, a start in a sailing race in which the signal is given while the vessels are under way. Flying torch (Mil.), a torch attached to a long staff and used for signaling at night.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Flying dutchman" Quotes from Famous Books



... the repertoire. She knew a fortnight before the papers what was going to be played next. It was amusing in a way. She knew when the Freischuetz was going to be played, for she saw the wolves' den being brought out; she knew when they were going to put on the Flying Dutchman, for the ship and the sea came out of the shed; and Tannhaeuser, and ...
— In Midsummer Days and Other Tales • August Strindberg
... in the kitchen; Mr. Bostwick was singing "O Promise Me;" the professor was trying to kick the globes off the chandelier; Mrs. Bostwick had switched her recitation to "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck," and Bessie had stolen into the parlor and was pounding out the overture from the "Flying Dutchman." ...
— American Fairy Tales • L. Frank Baum
... imperfectly distinguishable, he had looked for no rarer visitor than the potboy or the milkman; wherefore, when Florence appeared, and coming to the confines of the island, put her hand in his, the Captain stood up, aghast, as if he supposed her, for the moment, to be some young member of the Flying Dutchman's family.' ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... company being now relieved from further attendance, and the chief Barnacles being rather hurried (for they had it in hand just then to send a mail or two which was in danger of going straight to its destination, beating about the seas like the Flying Dutchman, and to arrange with complexity for the stoppage of a good deal of important business otherwise in peril of being done), went their several ways; with all affability conveying to Mr and Mrs Meagles that ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... amateur I can cite my own case as an example. I had progressed on the pianoforte until I was able to play Liszt's arrangement of the Spinning Song from Wagner's "Flying Dutchman." It is a difficult piece, but there is a great deal of pianoforte music that is more difficult and that was entirely beyond me. Moreover the fact that I was able to play this composition after much assiduous practice, did not mean that I could play equally difficult or even considerably less ...
— The Pianolist - A Guide for Pianola Players • Gustav Kobb
... would be again. I have been bayoneted into a fighting mood, and I find it magnificent to really feel alive again, after crawling in the dust so long, with the taste of it in my mouth. So don't pity me. As for Karl—he looks wild and strange, like the Flying Dutchman with his spectral hand on the helm. But I don't know that I want you to pity him either. He is a curious man, with a passionate soul, and if he flares out like a torch in the wind, it will be fitting enough. No, don't pity ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie
... there are very splendid things—some worn a little threadbare by now, but many still fresh. In the next act the prima donna has her opportunity. Senta, the heroine, sits at her spinning-wheel amidst a number of maidens. After a conventional spinning chorus, Senta sings the ballad of the Flying Dutchman, whose picture hangs on the wall, and ends up with an ecstatic appeal to Heaven, Fate—everyone in general and no one in particular—to give her the chance of saving him. Daland and Vanderdecken enter, and the drama begins to approach its climax. The spinning chorus is pretty; ...
— Wagner • John F. Runciman
... while something would set me at work romancing and wondering; and I read some stories in one of the books in the library,—of Peter Rugg the missing man, whom one may always meet riding from Salem to Boston in every storm, and of the Flying Dutchman and the Wandering Jew, and some terrible German stories of doomed people, and curses that were fulfilled. These made a great impression upon me; still I was not afraid, for all such things were far outside ...
— An Arrow in a Sunbeam - and Other Tales • Various


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