as the gull flies
- idiom
- UK
:
en línea recta
- The lighthouse is just three miles away as the gull flies, but much farther if you follow the winding roads.
Examples
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We could see the island from the shore, less than a mile as the gull flies.
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The distance from London to Cambridge is about 50 miles as the gull flies.
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His house is only a short distance from mine as the gull flies.
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The town is only five miles away as the gull flies.
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The lighthouse is just three miles away as the gull flies, but much farther if you follow the winding roads.
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His house is only a short distance from mine as the gull flies.
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The distance from London to Cambridge is about 50 miles as the gull flies.
Synonyms
3
4.2
A distance measured in a straight line between two places rather than by road
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 image of a gull flying suggests a direct aerial path, so a learner who knows 'gull' and 'fly' can often infer that the phrase refers to straight-line distance rather than a road route. However, this is a metaphorical extension (an idiomatic comparison) rather than a literal compositional meaning, so the precise usage about measured distance may not be fully predictable without exposure. Similar bird-flight idioms exist cross-linguistically, which helps recognizability but does not make it fully transparent.
Etymology
As the gull flies comes from the image of a gull flying straight over land or water while people must follow winding roads. That is why it means 'in a straight line' or the direct distance between two places.