fly the coop
Make hasty departure
To fly the coop is to escape or leave, especially abruptly or secretly.
The image is of a chicken escaping its enclosure.
The phrase often suggests leaving a confining situation—a job, a relationship, or one's childhood home: The kids flew the coop as soon as they turned eighteen.
It can also mean simply to depart: By the time we arrived, he'd already flown the coop.
Flee to avoid capture
- boltThreaded rod for nuts
- scramDepart hastily, informally
- skedaddleDepart hastily, often fearfully
- hightailDepart with urgency
decamp · vanish · disappear · get-away · run-off · take-off · split · dash
Absence of constraint
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- liberationRelease from constraint
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
Secretive and sly
- clandestineConcealed from authorities
- covertIntentionally concealed
- under-the-radarUndetected, deliberately inconspicuous
- undetectedNot discovered yet
unnoticed · tiptoeing · creeping · dodging · evasion · incognito · on-the-sly
Open resistance to authority
- insubordinationDefying workplace authority
- disobedienceRefusal to follow orders
- nonconformityRejection of prevailing norms
- dissentDisagreement with authority
resistance · mutiny · revolt · walkout · desertion · abandonment · shirking · flouting
abscond
Flee to avoid capture
hightail · decamp · vanish · disappear · get-away · run-off · take-off · split · dash · sprint
freedom
Absence of constraint
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- liberationRelease from constraint
furtive
Secretive and sly
- clandestineConcealed from authorities
- covertIntentionally concealed
- under-the-radarUndetected, deliberately inconspicuous
undetected · unnoticed · tiptoeing · creeping · dodging · evasion · incognito · on-the-sly
defiance
Open resistance to authority
- insubordinationDefying workplace authority
- disobedienceRefusal to follow orders
- nonconformityRejection of prevailing norms
dissent · resistance · mutiny · revolt · walkout · desertion · abandonment · shirking · flouting
- adolescencepuberty, teenager, coming-of-age, growing up, teen
- bird expressionsearly bird, birdbrain, bird brain, lovebirds, jailbird
- departuresleave, depart, exit, leaving, go
- escaperun away, get away, breakout, evasion, getaway
- farm idiomsmake hay while the sun shines, cream of the crop, put the cart before the horse, till the cows come home, buy the farm
- disappearingvanish, fade, disappear, vanishing, evaporate
fly the coopstay put
Remain in place
remain · stick around · stay · settle in · hunker down
fly the cooptoe the line
Adhere to standards
comply · submit · surrender · fall in line · give in
fly, flight, escape, flee, flying, coop, escaped, flyer, escapes