1865. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. The mare’s in splendid condition; well, you saw her take her trial gallop the other morning, and you must know she’s a flier, so I won’t talk about her. 1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 156. Atalanta might be a flyer, but an artist like Pycroft, with a clever colt like Newsmonger under him, was quite likely to outride whatever boy Mr. Pipes might now be able to pick up. 1888. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 2 Mar. In spite of the strike passenger trains, what are known as the flyers, are running with reasonable regularity. 1890. Bird o’ Freedom, 19 Mar., p. 1, col. 1. Clearly the G.O.M. is no flier over this course. 1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 Mar. Although he may doubtless be made a good deal better he may turn out to be no flier. 1891. Bury and Hillier, Cycling, p. 6. A moderate rider, not being an athlete or a flier ... can ... get over in an hour seven or eight miles of ground on a tricycle. 1891. Anti-Jacobin, 23 May, p. 400. When Dangerous, Plenipotentiary, Bay Middleton, and other flyers ran. 1891. Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. In any event, he was never a flyer at breakfast. But late at night, and when, perhaps, he tumbled across something equivalent to woodcock, tripe and onions, or a hot lobster, say, why then, take my word for it, he made up for previous abstinence. 1891. National Observer, 1 Aug. It remains to be seen whether large yachts constructed on the same principle will be equally invincible: that is, if the flyers we have are one and all to disappear. 2. (football).—A shot in the air. See Made-flyer. 3. (American).—A small hand-bill; a Dodger (q.v.). To take a flier (American trade).—1. To make a venture; to invest against odds. 2. (venery).—To copulate in haste (Grose); to do a Fast-fuck (q.v.). Flies, subs. (rhyming).—Lies. Hence, nonsense; trickery; deceit. There are no flies on me, on him, etc., phr. (common).—‘I am dealing honestly with you;’ ‘he is genuine, and is not humbugging.’ In America, the expression is used of (1) a man of quick parts, a man who ‘knows a thing without its being kicked into him by a mule’; and (2) a person of superior breeding or descent. Sometimes the phrase is corrupted into ‘no fleas.’ See Gammon.