Synonym Game

fly-by-night

[flahy-bahy-nahyt] Origin

fly-by-night

[flahy-bahy-nahyt]
adjective
1.
not reliable or responsible, especially in business; untrustworthy: a fly-by-night operation.
2.
not lasting; brief; impermanent; transitory: a fly-by-night theater.
noun Also, fly-by-night·er.
3.
a person or thing that is unreliable, especially a debtor who evades or attempts to evade creditors.
4.
a person regarded as a poor credit risk.

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Fly-by-night is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

Origin:
1790–1800
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To fly-by-night
Collins
World English Dictionary
fly-by-night
 
adj
1.  unreliable or untrustworthy, esp in finance
2.  brief; impermanent
 
n
3.  an untrustworthy person, esp one who departs secretly or by night to avoid paying debts
4.  a person who goes out at night to places of entertainment

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

fly-by-night
1796, slang, said to be an old term of reproach to a woman signifying that she was a witch; extended 1823 to "anyone who departs hastily from a recent activity," especially while owing money. The two senses involve the two verbs fly.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

fly-by-night definition


Shady or untrustworthy: “Before buying stock in a newly formed company, the prudent investor will check its owners' credentials to make sure it's not a fly-by-night operation.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

fly-by-night definition


  1. mod.
    undependable; dishonest. : Sam seems like such a fly-by-night character.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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