to take a flying leap
- idiom
- Offensive
- LOL, tell the city to take a flying leap!
Examples
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Why not take a flying leap around here?
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After our argument, she told me to take a flying leap and walked away.
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When I asked for a raise, my boss said I could take a flying leap.
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He was so upset with the new rules that he told the committee to take a flying leap.
Synonyms
Tell someone angrily to go away and that you will not accept their idea
Tell someone to leave in a rude way
Tell someone to go away immediately in a rude way
To tell someone to go away right away in a rude or angry way
Leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
Tell someone rudely to go away or leave you alone
Tell someone to go away in a rude way
Tell someone to leave in a rude, angry way
Tell someone to go away and leave you alone
To tell someone to go away in a mild, angry way
Rudely say to someone that you want them to go away
To tell someone angrily to go away and leave you alone
A rude joking way to tell someone to go away without meaning it
Rudely tell someone to go away and stop bothering you
To tell someone to go away in a rude, angry way
To leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
To tell someone to go away and stop annoying you
Angrily tell someone to go away
Antonyms
How Dismissive
- Offensive
- Offensive
- UK
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal constituents ('take' + 'flying' + 'leap') transparently describe making a dramatic jump, so a learner could guess a physical action. However, the phrase is used idiomatically as a rude dismissal and the pragmatic force (telling someone to go away) and its rudeness are not fully predictable from the parts; this pragmatic shift is language-specific and may be missed by a B1 learner.
Etymology
Take a flying leap may come from a clear picture of someone running and making a big, fast jump—a take of a flying leap—to put distance between them and a situation. So today it is used to sharply tell someone to 'go away' or 'leave'.