fly a kite
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
To raise money on commercial notes; to obtain money as by accommodation bills, the endorser having no actual money.
Register: archaic, slang
Where it’s used:
Used
American English
Examples
' She was a lively piece, from what I hear — flying her kite all over the place.
‘ Well, I daresay it's just me flying a kite, but the fact is Everett was too bloody inquisitive for his own good.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Common questions
What does “fly a kite” mean?
To raise money on commercial notes; to obtain money as by accommodation bills, the endorser having no actual money.
Is “fly a kite” formal or informal?
fly a kite is generally archaic, slang.