flight

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The motion of an object in or through a medium, especially through the earth's atmosphere or through space.
• noun An instance of such motion.
• noun The distance covered in such motion.
• noun The act or process of flying through the air by means of wings.
• noun The ability to fly.
• noun A swift passage or movement.
• noun A scheduled airline run or trip into space.
• noun A group, especially of birds or aircraft, flying together.
• noun A number of aircraft in the US Air Force forming a subdivision of a squadron.
• noun A round of competition, as in a sports tournament.
• noun An exuberant or transcendent effort or display.
• noun A series of stairs rising from one landing to another.
• noun A curved plate or flange that winds in a spiral around the center shaft of an auger, designed to transport loose material upward or backward along the shaft as the auger rotates.
• intransitive verb To migrate or fly in flocks.
• noun The act or an instance of running away; an escape.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To put to flight; rout; frighten away.
• noun An obsolete spelling of flite.
• noun The act or power of flying; a passing through the air by the help of wings; volitation.
• noun Swift motion in general; rapid movement or passage caused by any propelling force: as, the flight of a missile; a meteor's flight; the flight of a fish toward its prey; the flight of a rapidly revolving wheel.
• noun A number of beings or things flying or passing through the air together; especially, a flock of birds flying in company; the birds that fly or migrate together; the birds produced in the same season: applied specifically in the old language of English sport to doves and swallows, and in America to pigeons, and also to a swarm of bees.
• noun Figuratively, an excursion or sally; a passing out of or beyond a fixed course; a mounting or soaring: as, a flight of imagination or fancy; a flight of ambition or of temper.
• noun In archery: The sport of shooting arrows in the manner now called roving—that is, with roving aim instead of at a butt. See rover.
• noun Shooting with the longbow in general, as distinguished from the use of the crossbow. See flight-arrow.
• noun A continuous series of steps or stairs; the part of a stairway extending directly from one floor or one landing to another.
• noun The glume or husk of oats.
• noun The thin membrane which is detached from the coffee-berry in the process of roasting.
• noun In the clapper of a bell, the dependent piece or weight below the striking part; the tail.
• noun In machinery: The inclination of the arm of a crane or of a cat-head.
• noun A wing or fin; a fan.
• noun Synonyms 3. See flock, n.
• Swift in transit.
• In sporting, belonging to a flight or flock.
• noun In archery: The course of an arrow through the air.
• noun The distance traversed by an arrow.
• noun In mach.: A wing or scraper, pushed or pulled through the trough of a conveyer by a chain, to drag the load through it.
• noun A flat bucket or vane on the periphery of a wheel-pump or on the chain which it drives.
• noun Same as flyboat.
• noun In angling, the set of spinning-baits attached by the trace to the reel-line in a spinning-tackle.
• noun A primary, flight-feather, or remex: a term commonly used by pigeon-fanciers.
• noun The distance a bird may or does fly; the height at which it flies: in these senses, largely figurative.
• noun A group of three or more locks situated in such close proximity along a canal that the level of water between any two adjacent locks of the series may economically be raised and lowered to produce a lift: in distinction from locks arranged in isolated pairs with considerable distance between the different pairs.
• noun The act of fleeing; the act of running away to escape danger or expected evil; hasty departure.
• To take flight; fly: an English sporting use.
• To shoot (wildfowl) in their flight to or from their feeding-grounds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of flying; a passing through the air by the help of wings; volitation; mode or style of flying.
• noun The act of fleeing; the act of running away, to escape danger or expected evil; hasty departure.
• noun Lofty elevation and excursion; a mounting; a soaring.
• noun A number of beings or things passing through the air together; especially, a flock of birds flying in company; the birds that fly or migrate together; the birds produced in one season.