fly the flag
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Show support or representation for something
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
thể hiện sự ủng hộ hoặc đại diện cho điều gì đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: hoist a flag
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
MIKE MACARA from Llandudno Maesdu and Ian Rowlands of Old Padeswood will fly the flag for North Wales golf in Europe next month.
He passed beside them all, seeing no one, his eyes fixed on the sea and the skiff, and the two great ships and the galleys beyond, all of them flying the Lusignan flag.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “fly the flag” mean?
Show support or representation for something Literally: hoist a flag
Is “fly the flag” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.