fly-by-night

1 of 2

noun

ˈflī-bī-ˌnīt 

1

: one that seeks to evade responsibilities and especially creditors by flight

2

: one without established reputation or standing

especially : a shaky business enterprise

fly-by-night

2 of 2

adjective

1

: given to making a quick profit usually by shady or irresponsible acts

2

: transitory, passing

fly-by-night fashions

Examples of fly-by-night in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

This wasn’t a fly-by-night success story—Baker has published more than 600 papers in his career—and neither was AlphaFold2, the Google DeepMind project that was awarded the prize by the committee. —Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, 9 Oct. 2024

The pitch was in keeping with Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Wine, and Trump’s other fly-by-night merchandising ventures. —Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2024

And small fly-by-night initiatives have become a bigger concern lately. —Justine Calma, The Verge, 12 Aug. 2024

Over the past 15 years, a cottage industry of fly-by-night prep schools similar to Kanye West’s Donda Academy has sprung up in the U.S., luring international teenage players with promises of exposure to college recruiters and a shot at a pro career. —Lev Akabas, Sportico.com, 3 Aug. 2024

This rule was initially aimed at stamping out fly-by-night Chinese operations recycling dirty or otherwise contaminated material. —Tian MacLeod Ji, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 July 2024

That was a kind of bat signal to artists: This wasn’t some fly-by-night concert concept. —Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 10 June 2024

Informal, temporary, or fly-by-night passport-selling schemes have come and gone over the years, often in step with war, unrest, and political uncertainty. —Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023

Using a multitude of shell companies, aliases and fly-by-night phone providers allegedly under their control, the people behind the network — which CNN has previously reported on — had sought to dupe unwitting consumers into buying shoddy service contracts for their vehicles since 2018. —Brian Fung, CNN, 4 Aug. 2023

Adjective

But even before that, AMPAS leaders tackled the issue of moviegoing, since the new fly-by-night entertainment had evolved into an industry. —Tim Gray, Chicago Tribune, 5 Mar. 2023

But now, allowing every fly-by-night oversees judgment-proof vendor to ship sales directly into American households is Customs anarchy. —Kenneth Rapoza, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1822, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1