Definition of "flight"

flight¹

/flaɪt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural flights
1. The act of flying.
2. An instance of flying.
3. (collective) A collective term for doves or swallows.
4. A trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.
5. A series of stairs between landings.
  Quotations
  She crept up the stairs [...] On she went, across the landing, from which sprang the tall window, and up the next flight until she reached the top.
  1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, page 84
6. A group of canal locks with a short distance between them
7. A floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.
8. The feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.
  Quotations
  Baſſ. In my ſchoole dayes, when I had loſt one ſhaft / I ſhot his fellow of the ſelfeſame flight / The ſelfeſame way, with more aduiſed watch / To finde the other forth, and by aduenturing both, / I oft found both. I vrge this child-hoode proofe, […]
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i], page 164
9. A paper airplane.
10. (cricket) The movement of a spinning ball through the air - concerns its speed, trajectory and drift.
11. The ballistic trajectory of an arrow or other projectile.
12. An aerodynamic surface designed to guide such a projectile's trajectory.
13. An air force unit.
14. (US, naval) A numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
15. Several sample glasses of a specific wine varietal or other beverage. The pours are smaller than a full glass and the flight will generally include three to five different samples.
16. (engineering) The shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
17. An episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.
adjective
comparative more flight, superlative most flight
1. (obsolete) Fast, swift, fleet.
verb
third-person singular simple present flights, present participle flighting, simple past and past participle flighted
1. (cricket, of a spin bowler) To throw the ball in such a way that it has more airtime and more spin than usual.
2. (sports, by extension, transitive) To throw or kick something so as to send it flying with more loft or airtime than usual.
  Quotations
  Riyad Mahrez flighted the free-kick that followed to the far post and Morgan, with not much finesse but plenty of desire, bundled the ball over the line. Cue pandemonium in the stands.
  2017 March 14, Stuart James, “Leicester stun Sevilla to reach last eight after Kasper Schmeichel save”, in the Guardian‎

flight²

/flaɪt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural flights
1. The act of fleeing.
  Quotations
  Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caughtThe Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.
  1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1
  But the sight of her eyes was not a thing to forget. John Dodds said they were the een of a deer with the Devil ahint them; and indeed, they would so appal an onlooker that a sudden unreasoning terror came into his heart, while his feet would impel him to flight.
  1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide