To make the fur (or feathers) fly, verb. phr. (common).—To attack effectively; to make a disturbance; to quarrel noisily like two tom cats on the tiles, who are said (in American) to pull fur, or to pull wool.
1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 132. Thar, they’ve got him agin, and now the fur flies.
1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. ‘Wait until the National Committee assembles on February 22,’ said the organizer, ‘and you will see the fur fly from the Cleveland hide.’
To take on the fly, verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To beg in the streets; a specific usage of adverbial sense.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, II., p. 59. The ‘first move’ in his mendicant career was taking them on the fly, which means meeting the gentry on their walks, and beseeching or at times menacing them till something is given.
To fly a kite, verb. phr. (common).—To raise money by means of accommodation bills; to raise the wind (q.v.).
1812. From an old Dublin Jester. [The story, however, with slight variations, is told of other judges. See N. and Q., S. ix., 6 326–394.] In a case before the Lord Chancellor of Ireland Mr. Curran, on behalf of the suitor, prayed to be relieved from the payment of some bills for which he had not received consideration, but only lent his name as an accommodation. Mr. Curran, in the course of his pleadings, mentioned the terms kite and raising the wind several times, when his lordship requested to know the meaning of the words. ‘My lord,’ Mr. Curran replied, ‘in your country (meaning England) the wind generally raises the kite, but with us, significantly looking at the gentlemen of the bar, the kite raises the wind.’
1848. Punch, XIV., p. 226. ‘The Model Gentleman.’ He never does ‘a little discounting’ nor lends his hand to ‘flying a kite.’
1849. Perils of Pearl Street, p. 82. Flying the kite is rather a perilous adventure.
1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Little Worries). You have a kite you cannot fly, and creditors are pressing.