Fur-flying

adj, slang

adj, slang ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Vicious. idiomatic, informal

    "2006: 'Anticlimactic as it may have been, the news last week that Meredith Vieira would replace Katie Couric on the “Today” show marked the dénouement of a fur-flying, nail-biting, years-long game of musical chairs among television’s leading ladies.' — The New Yorker, 17 April 2006, page 27."

Example

More examples

"2006: 'Anticlimactic as it may have been, the news last week that Meredith Vieira would replace Katie Couric on the “Today” show marked the dénouement of a fur-flying, nail-biting, years-long game of musical chairs among television’s leading ladies.' — The New Yorker, 17 April 2006, page 27."

Etymology

Since a particularly vicious fight between cats or other animals sends fur flying.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.