TAKE FLIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does take flight mean? 

• TAKE FLIGHT (verb)
  The verb TAKE FLIGHT has 1 sense:

1. run away quickly

  Familiarity information: TAKE FLIGHT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAKE FLIGHT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Run away quickly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

flee; fly; take flight

Context example:

He threw down his gun and fled

Hypernyms (to "take flight" is one way to...):

break away; bunk; escape; fly the coop; head for the hills; hightail it; lam; run; run away; scarper; scat; take to the woods; turn tail (flee; take to one's heels; cut and run)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "take flight"):

break (make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing)

stampede (run away in a stampede)

abscond; absquatulate; bolt; decamp; go off; make off; run off (run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along)

elope; run off (run away secretly with one's beloved)

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

high-tail; hightail (retreat at full speed)

defect; desert (desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

One part of the involuntary nervous system helps the body rest, relax, and digest food and another part helps a person fight or take flight in an emergency.

(Involuntary nervous system, NCI Dictionary)

One part of the autonomic nervous system helps the body rest, relax, and digest food and another part helps a person fight or take flight in an emergency.

(Autonomic nervous system, NCI Dictionary)

One part of the ANS helps the body rest, relax, and digest food and another part helps a person fight or take flight in an emergency.

(ANS, NCI Dictionary)

Every year during spring and fall migration, tens of millions of birds take flight at sunset and pass over our heads, unseen in the night sky.

(Using artificial intelligence to track birds' dark-of-night migrations, National Science Foundation)