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Fly the Coop

 

Fly the Coop 

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Meaning:

Fly the Coop means to leave, to depart, or to escape. 


Origin:

This phrase has not been around for long but it has some old roots.

In Middle English around the 1200s, the word COOP first meant a wicker basket - and then as a cage or a pen for keeping poultry.

In the late 18th century COOP, became criminal slang for prison or jail, and eventually any confining place, both literal and figuratively. So, to “FLY THE COOP”, first meant to escape from prison, with the visual likeness of a chicken escaping from a chicken coop. It later came to mean to depart hastily from any place, but especially from a place that started to feel confining or restrictive.

The first written record was in 1909, in The Enchanted Profile by O. Henry it read:

“On the third day, I FLEW THE COOP.”


Example:

Today we still use this saying to express that a place was left and left quickly due to feeling boring or restrictive. Or as just a saying to say it is time to move on. An example sentence is:

“We stopped to see my sister at college, but she'd flew the coop, for the long weekend.”


Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video



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