as the crow flies
/əz ðə ˈkrəʊ ˌflaɪz/NEUTRAL · B2
Meaning
measured in a straight line between two places
Examples
- 1The two villages are only five miles apart as the crow flies, but the drive takes an hour.
- 2It's about ten kilometres as the crow flies, though the hills make the walk much longer.
- 3My school was only a mile away as the crow flies, but the bus went all round town.
- 4How far is the airport as the crow flies? The taxi driver keeps taking the long way.
- 5Tom's new flat is closer to work as the crow flies, but the train journey is slower.
Grammar
The phrase does not change: keep the present form flies in every tense. It usually follows a distance.
Similar in meaning
More idioms about travel
All 20 idioms and the topic quiz →a whistle-stop toura quick trip that visits many places in a short timemake tracksto leave, especially in order to go homea busman's holidaytime off spent doing the same kind of thing as your joba change of scenea stay somewhere new that helps you feel betterin the same boatsharing a difficult situation with other peopleback on trackmaking good progress again after a problem
English Idioms400 idioms in 20 topics — with reviews that keep them from fading
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