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take flight

take flight idiom

Also, take wing. Run away, flee, go away, as in When the militia arrived, the demonstrators took flight, or The tenant took wing before paying the rent. The first idiom derives from the earlier take one's flight, dating from the late 1300s, and was first recorded in 1435. The variant was first recorded in 1704.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.