ˈhigh-flyer, -flier
[f. high adv. + flyer.]
1. a. lit. One who or that which flies high, as a person, a bird, a balloon, or the like; also, a swing set in a frame.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 15 Men haue great desire to be compted high fliers and deepe swimmers. 1698 W. Chilcot Evil Thoughts vi. (1851) 61 These highflyers, when they are in their altitudes, suddenly their waxen wings melt, and down they fall headlong. 1855 Browning Grammarian's Funeral 135 All ye highfliers of the feathered race, Swallows and curlews! 1886 T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. iii, Improvements..in the roundabouts and highfliers. |
b. Popular name of the Purple Emperor butterfly, and of the genus Ypsipetes of moths.
| 1773 Wilkes Eng. Moths & Butterfl. pl. 120 The Purple Highflier, or Emperor of the Woods. 1869 E. Newman Brit. Butterfl. & Moths 152 Ruddy Highflyer. Ibid. 153 May Highflyer..July Highflyer. |
c. A variety of walnut.
| 1822 Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc. IV. 517 The Highflyer Walnut. 1824 Loudon Encycl. Gardening 742 Walnut... Highflyer of Thetford, the best variety known. 1866 Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot. 640/2 A variety called the Highflyer Walnut, is considered the best English variety. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XII. 278/1. |
2. One who soars high in his aims, ambitions, notions, etc.
| 1663 Pepys Diary 27 May, He..would have me..to look him out a widow..A woman sober, and no high-flyer, as he calls it. 1694 Crowne Married Beau ii. Dram. Wks. 1874 IV. 278 Oh! pshaw, our hearts are seldom such high flyers. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma i. 1 He had all the airy dreaminess of an hereditary highflyer. |
3. One who has lofty or ‘high-flown’ notions on some question of polity, esp. ecclesiastical. spec. a. In late 17th and early 18th c., One who made or supported lofty claims on behalf of the authority of the Church; a High-Churchman; a Tory. Cf. high-flown 3, high-flying a. 3. b. In Scotland in end of 18th and beginning of 19th c., An Evangelical, as opposed to a Moderate.
| 1680 Hon. Cavalier 9 The honest Divines of the Church of England who for their Conscience and Obedience are Branded for High-flyers. 1699 H. Chandler Effort agst. Bigotry (1709) 19 The High-Flyers..talk and act as if they thought the Kingdom of God was nothing else but Circumstance and Ceremony. 1718 Entertainer A iij b, I am afraid St. Peter and St. Paul will scarce escape being censured for Tories and High-Flyers. 1730 Swift Vind. Ld. Carteret Wks. 1841 II. 113/1, I am told that she openly professes herself to be a highflyer. 1803 T. Jefferson Writ. (Ford) VIII. 222 A schism was taking place in Pennsylvania between the moderates and high-flyers. 1814 D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. (1867) 395 From a sullen sectarian [he] turned a flaming highflyer for the ‘supreme dominion’ of the Church. 1830 Westm. Rev. XIII. 78 The serious effusions of the clerical high-flyers. 1856 Masson Edinb. Sk. (1892) 172 The small minority of Evangelicals, or ‘High-fliers’, as they were called, corresponded to the proscribed ‘Liberals’ in secular politics. 1897 Q. Rev. Oct. 486 When he [Sir W. Scott] wrote, the fierce ecclesiastical conflict between Moderates and ‘high flyers’ was still raging. |
† 4. A fast stage-coach. Obs.
| 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. i, Mail-coach races against mail-coach, and high-flier against high-flier, through the most remote districts of Britain. 1868 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xxii. (Farmer), The old room on the ground floor where the passengers of the High-flyers used to dine. |
5. slang. a. A pretentious or fashionable strumpet; a ‘swell’ beggar, one of the ‘swell mob’; a begging-letter writer. † b. A frequenter of the gallery of a theatre (obs.). † c. An exaggerated statement; a ‘cram’ (obs.).
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, High Flyers, Impudent, Forward, Loose, Light Women; also bold Adventurers. 1719 D'Urfey Pills V. 349 Bench-hoppers, High-Flyers, Pit-Plyers, be still. 1776 G. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleas. I. 168 If your Honour had heard the high-fliers he crammed my poor head with, all the while we were at it—the soft things he said [etc.]. 1821 Egan Tom & Jerry v. (Farmer), As you have your high-flyers at Almack's. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 250 Pursuing the course of a ‘high-flyer’ (genteel beggar). 1859 Autobiog. Beggar Boy 17 The highflyer turns up his genteel proboscis at the common cadger. |
d. = flyer 5 b.
| 1961 in Webster. 1964 Economist 22 Feb. 722/1 Stocks, variously called ‘glamour’ issues or ‘high flyers’. 1969 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 6/4 The other fund may have been lucky—or clever—enough to have a number of real ‘high-fliers' in its portfolio and so has had to do comparatively little switching to achieve its 100 p.c. growth. 1969 Times 16 July 22/4 Another of last year's high flyers came unstuck yesterday when Qualitex Yarns revealed that it had missed its forecast. |