lord of the flies

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

A person, especially a child, who behaves savagely or brutally

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

một người, đặc biệt là trẻ em, hành động hung bạo hoặc tàn bạo

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: title of a novel by William Golding
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The bully was the lord of the flies in the playground

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “lord of the flies” mean?

A person, especially a child, who behaves savagely or brutally Literally: title of a novel by William Golding

Is “lord of the flies” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.