fly-on-the-wall

adjective

: having or involving an inconspicuous but effective point of observation
fly-on-the-wall observations of aspects of daily lifeWill Manley

Examples of fly-on-the-wall in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The musician's new HBO documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero was released Saturday, and the film offers a fly-on-the-wall look into his first-ever concert tour as well as insights about his upbringing, family dynamics, views on religion and more. Jack Irvin, Peoplemag, 29 Jan. 2024 The film is a fly-on-the-wall account of Antetokounmpo’s inaugural visit to his homeland, where he is accompanied by his mother, who emigrated from Nigeria to Greece 35 years ago. Brent Lang, Variety, 16 Jan. 2024 During its run, the fly-on-the-wall show won one Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding reality program in 2002 — the second year the category was featured in the award show. Sadie Bell, Peoplemag, 12 Dec. 2023 In page after page of fly-on-the-wall detail, the indictment unsealed in New York this week describes a chilling plot: A criminal operative, on orders from a government official in India, tried to arrange the killing of a Sikh American on U.S. soil. Hari Kumar, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2023 The project took shape during the COVID pandemic — a period that Wiseman found creatively frustrating, as masks and social distancing posed obstructive forces to his fly-on-the-wall shooting style and interest in body language. J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 22 Nov. 2023 Forget any fly-on-the-wall scenes, mic’d-up moments, or amusing B-roll. Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2023 The new show has more of a fly-on-the-wall quality. Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2023 None of this is initially clear from Wiseman’s typical fly-on-the-wall approach, which provides no titles or talking-head interviews, inviting the viewer to watch and learn. Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fly-on-the-wall.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fly-on-the-wall was in 1974

Dictionary Entries Near fly-on-the-wall

Cite this Entry

“Fly-on-the-wall.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly-on-the-wall. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!