English

A pair of flying foxes.

Noun

flying fox ‎(plural flying foxes)

1. A large Australasian bat, of the genera Pteropus or Acerodon in the family Pteropodidae, having a fox-like face.
2. Any bat of the family Pteropodidae (see Usage notes).
3. The cyprinid fish Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus.
4. A device consisting of a chair suspended on a pulley, and running along a length of cable, used for transporting across ravines etc.

Usage notes

• According to some sources, "flying fox" may be used to refer to the whole family, whereas others use the common terms "fruit bat" or "megabat" to refer to the family. In other languages the corresponding terms may have different coverages, see e.g. German and Finnish in the translation table.

Synonyms

• (device consisting of a chair suspended on a pulley): zip-line

Hypernyms

• (large bat): fruit bat, megabat
• (fish): cyprinid

Derived terms

• giant golden-crowned flying fox

Translations