Flail fly of

Question

She had succeeded in removing the United Nations’ flailing fly off the table and she had decided in her mind that she would delay all bilateral negotiations.

Here someone tell me whats is the meaning of "flailing fly of".

Clive · Accepted Answer

I don't know. I thought it might just be a typing error, but I checked the source of the line and it is there.

Clive

Nasir khan · Answer

Here someone tell me whats is the meaning of "flailing fly of".

CalifJim · Answer

nasir khanthe meaning of "flailing fly of". off, not of.

That has no meaning because it's not a constituent of the sentence. In other words, you're parsing it wrong.

The expression that we are working with is

'to remove [(something)] | [off (the table)]',

just like Please remove [that book] | [off the table].*

Thus, it's

removing [the United Nations’ flailing fly] [off the table],

and the 'flailing fly' is a metaphor for the unproductive and deteriorating negotiations between Pakistan and India, and 'removing (it) off the table' is a metaphor for getting rid of it, eliminating the problem, casting it aside.

flailing: struggling uselessly; floundering, thrashing, squirming, twitching, wiggling

fly: a flying insect characterized by a single pair of transparent wings

CJ

*'remove off' appears to be characteristic of Indian English.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

nasir khan flailing fly

A fly is an annoying pesky small insect. To flail means to move about in a helpless or useless way.

A "flailing fly" here is a metaphor for a nagging issue or debate that had been discussed or raised without any resolution in the United Nations. "Taking something off the table" means to take it out of active status, deferring it.

Flail fly of

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