the fly on the coach-wheel
Preserved but no longer current.
One who fancies himself of mighty importance, but who is in reality of none at all. The allusion is to ^Esop's fable of a fly sitting on a chariot-wheel and saying, "See what a dust I make!
Người tự cho mình quan trọng nhưng thực tế không có tầm ảnh hưởng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “the fly on the coach-wheel” mean?
One who fancies himself of mighty importance, but who is in reality of none at all. The allusion is to ^Esop's fable of a fly sitting on a chariot-wheel and saying, "See what a dust I make!
Is “the fly on the coach-wheel” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.