Etymology:
- It was popular phrase of American Army’s Air corps in 1930s. Sometimes there were no instruments available to the planes and sometimes planes were there but instruments were not functional. In that situation, pilot had to fly the plane with his natural instinct so he used to sit tight and firm on the seat of his pants making sure he was alert. Today if you have no instructions or experience for a project or work, you might have to “Fly by the seat of your pant” using your common sense and intuition.
- 81 Views
“
Daniel had not worked on this newspaper before so he was flying by the seat of his pants in his new job.
Submitted on February 25, 2019
Modified by TriplePurple on December 29, 2023
Translation
Find a translation for the fly by the seat of one's pants phrase in other languages:
andare a braccio, improvvisare
volare ad sedem tuam braccas
在你的裤子旁边飞
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Nearby phrases
Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to fly by the seat of one's pants
How to pronounce this phrase?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this fly by the seat of one's pants definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"fly by the seat of one's pants." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Oct. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/fly-by-the-seat-of-one's-pants_44670>.
Discuss this fly by the seat of one's pants phrase with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In