as the crow flies

English

Etymology

From the fact that while crows fly to their source of food, their flight bypasses obstacles like rivers and terrain. Compare beeline.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Adverb

as the crow flies (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) In a straight line distance between two locations, as opposed to the road distance or over land distance.

   It is 15 kilometers as the crow flies.

Translations

in a straight line

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 筆直地／笔直地, 笔直地 (bǐzhí de)

• Czech: vzdušnou čarou (cs) f
• Danish: i fugleflugt
• Dutch: hemelsbreed (nl)
• Finnish: linnuntietä
• French: à vol d’oiseau (fr)
• German: Luftlinie (de) f
• Hebrew: בקו אווירי m (be'kav aviri)
• Hungarian: toronyiránt
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: i bhfoirm líne díreach trasna tíre
• Italian: in linea d'aria
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: i luftlinje, i fugleflukt

• Portuguese: em linha reta
• Russian: напряму́ю (ru) (naprjamúju), по прямо́й (ru) (po prjamój)
• Spanish: a vuelo de pájaro
• Swedish: fågelvägen (sv)
• Turkish: kuş uçuşu (tr)

See also

• beeline
• displacement (physics)