as the crow flies

adv

Etymology

From the fact that while crows fly to their source of food, their flight bypasses obstacles like rivers and terrain. Compare beeline.

Definitions

  1. In a straight line distance between two locations, as opposed to the road distance or…

    In a straight line distance between two locations, as opposed to the road distance or over land distance.

    • It is 15 kilometers as the crow flies.
    • ʽFire,ʼ said Bill, ʽin the form of a common cowshed, is burnin' about nor'-nor'-east as the crow flies.ʼ
    • The distance from Sarajevo to Ploce is 75 miles as the crow flies, but because of the difficult terrain the new line is 120 miles long.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for as the crow flies. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA