as the crow flies
3
4.2
- idiom
:
en línea recta
- The way out of the park, as the crow flies, is Old Maverick Road, twelve miles of gravel arrowing due north to Highway 170 West, the homestretch to Terlingua.
- miles as the crow flies
We live just east of that, about two miles as the crow flies.
- We live just east of that, about two miles as the crow flies.
Examples
-
It is not a long way to Tipperary, Ireland, from Brussels, Belgium, the seat of the European Union—some 850 kilometers as the crow flies.
Academic text (1999) -
As the crow flies, it is 34 miles away.
Blog text (6) -
It's not that far as the crow flies.
-
-About 100 miles from the coast, as the crow flies.
-
But if we went straight across, as the crow flies, we might just be there in under 24 hours.
-
We're really not that far away, as the crow flies.
Fiction book (1990) -
Because it may be fifteen miles as the crow flies, but it's a good twenty-five if you're traveling by road.
Fiction book (2001) -
From my hotel in Riasi, Jammu, the old lead mines at Kheri Kot were a mere five miles away as the crow flies.
Academic text (2008) -
Montezuma County is the southwestern tip of Colorado, and the tiny town of Cortez is about thirty miles as the crow flies from the Four Corners.
Academic text (2004) -
It's not that far as the crow flies.
Synonyms
324
1.0
In a straight line without turning
In a straight line between two places, not along roads
Antonyms
78
4.2
In a way that does not say something clearly, often by a hint or through someone else
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
The simile 'as the crow flies' evokes the image of a bird flying directly through the air, so a learner who knows 'crow' and 'fly' can often infer a sense of direct or straight-line movement. However, the conventionalized meaning 'distance measured in a straight line rather than along roads' is a more specific, idiomatic extension of that image and may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
As the crow flies comes from the image of a crow flying in a straight line over fields and hills, not following roads. So it means the 'straight-line' distance between two places.