Timeline for Is there a widely-accepted opposite of "as the crow flies"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
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| S Jul 22, 2017 at 22:15 | history | suggested | SQB | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Improved formatting; added proper quote
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| Jul 22, 2017 at 21:51 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jul 22, 2017 at 22:15 | |||||
| Jul 21, 2017 at 17:34 | comment | added | Joshua | Well there's as the Nazgul flies and as the horse runs. | |
| Jul 21, 2017 at 10:24 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | Even within LotR its not established as an idiom, so much as copying the crow pattern and referencing the fact that actual wolves were a problem. | |
| Jul 21, 2017 at 2:32 | comment | added | zwol | This is what my dad actually said when he wanted to express this concept, but you know, he probably got it from Tolkien. | |
| Jul 20, 2017 at 19:20 | comment | added | Mike Harris | Although this is a good parallel phrase, at the time it was said, the party was being pursued by wolves. I suspect Gandalf intended it literally! | |
| Jul 20, 2017 at 16:57 | comment | added | Aliden | @Ethan Holshouser Good point. I missed the bit about roads in the OP | |
| Jul 20, 2017 at 16:51 | comment | added | Ethan Holshouser |
@KevinDTimm I don't think they are even close to synonymous. A wolf cannot run up or down a cliff, across a gorge, through a lake, etc., whereas a crow could fly directly over all of those things. As the wolf runs takes landscape and "conditions on the ground" into consideration while as the crow flies does not. They are very different things. That said, this is probably not quite what OP is looking for since wolves certainly do not constrain themselves to existing roads and paths.
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| Jul 20, 2017 at 14:39 | comment | added | bendl | Try to run directly anywhere through woods. It just doesn't work. | |
| Jul 20, 2017 at 14:36 | comment | added | KevinDTimm |
As the wolf runs would be analogous to as the crow flies and most certainly not a 'widely-accepted opposite'. I would even argue that it's nearly synonymous as I would expect a wolf to run directly (as near to straight as possible, allowing for barriers to travel) to it's target just as the crow is flying straight to theirs.
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| Jul 20, 2017 at 13:29 | comment | added | user247660 | If the OP is looking for a "parallel idiom", this is it. | |
| Jul 20, 2017 at 13:23 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 20, 2017 at 14:12 | |||||
| Jul 20, 2017 at 13:22 | history | answered | Aliden | CC BY-SA 3.0 |