catch flies

catch flies

To have one's mouth agape, as while asleep or when staring bemusedly or in amazement. I suppose I look rather ungraceful when I fall asleep on airplanes, with my head thrown back in the seat and catching flies. The students all sat staring in utter incomprehension, catching flies as the professor explained quantum mechanics.
See also: catch, flies
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • be in the Land of Nod
  • in the Land of Nod
  • the sandman's coming
  • read (oneself) to sleep
  • read oneself to sleep
  • sound asleep
  • dead asleep
  • be dead on (one's) feet
  • (one's) old man
  • (one's) old lady
References in classic literature
They work two or three hours at a time, but not hard, and then they knock off and catch flies. This does not require any talent, because they only have to grab--if they do not get the one they are after, they get another.
Yellow sticky traps can also be used to catch flies or you can set your own - try little bowls of cider that will attract them with the sugary scent.
Ponting's reflexes remain quick and he can still catch flies in the field but evidently he has slowed a fraction.
"Then Lee showed us how to catch flies with your hand," says Hamill.
The sewage will act as a bait to catch flies which the EcoBot II will digest in eight microbial fuel cells.
I'd be afraid I would snore or, even worse, lie with my mouth open as though to catch flies.
They will dart out of the bushes to catch flies in mid-air.
"You'll catch flies like that," Becks warns an openmouthed Gail.
They feed on insects and catch flies by suddenly darting into the air.
"MAN who catch flies with chopsticks can accomplish anything." So says the site whose sole reason to be is to have you catching flies with virtual chopsticks which work with a click of the mouse.