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A fly on the wall. 1. An unperceived observer – able to see and hear but not be seen or heard. 2 – A form of cinema in which events are recorded without direction. 1 – I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Putin met Obama. 2 – These reality shows are just the same as the old fly-on-the-wall documentaries.
Meaning. to see or listen to something without being noticed. to secretly hear or see something. fly on the wall can also mean bystander, spectator, listener-in, or looker-on. The idiom is used to express someone’s desire to be an unnoticeable observer privy to a conversation or scenario without being seen or heard.
This is an American phrase that originated there in the 1920s. The first citation of it that I can find is from The Oakland Tribune, February 1921: “I’d just love to be a fly on the wall when the Right Man comes along.”. It is now most often used in relation to ‘fly on the wall documentaries’, which are films of real life situations ...
Fly on the wall. A brilliant if now over-used metaphor for an undetected observer or listener, more often than not expressed as a wish to be a fly on the wall directed at whatever situation one wishes to witness or overhear. It is not known who coined such a creative metaphor but the consensus is that it is originally American.
As Romeo says:— 'Flies may gaze on thee; would I were a fly,/On gauzy wing I to my Clem would hie,/ And gaze, and gaze till I wore out mine eye.'" Also (and more specifically relevant to the modern sense of "a fly on the wall"), in Susanna Centlivre, Marplot in Lisbon (1711), reprinted in The Works of the Celebrated Mrs. Centlivre, volume 2 ...
The idiom “fly on the wall” refers to this desire to be an unnoticed spectator. It describes a situation where someone is able to observe events or conversations without being noticed, like a fly that can see everything from its vantage point on the wall. The expression “fly on the wall” is often used metaphorically in various contexts ...
May 23, 2024 · Views: 13,827. References. "A fly on the wall" is an English language idiom, or expression that draws meaning from words not specifically related to its intent. The phrase means that a person is able to listen and watch what is happening in a particular place while not being observed. The expression is a reference to the ability of a fly to sit ...
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