fly like a rock

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fly like a rock (third-person singular simple present flies like a rock, present participle flying like a rock, simple past flew like a rock, past participle flown like a rock)

1. (simile, sometimes sarcastic) to travel through the air with little or no benefit from aerodynamic lift

   If the wings aren't big enough, your paper airplane will fly like a rock.

   • 1970, American Association of Physics Teachers, The Physics Teacher‎, volumes 8–9, page 541:

     When students have compared the wing areas and weights by squaring and cubing the linear ratios, they correctly predict the large one will fly "like a rock"...

• fly like a bird