as the crow flies

Definitions

In a straight line distance between two locations, as opposed to the road distance or over land distance.

idiomatic, not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“It is 15 kilometers as the crow flies.”

“ʽFire,ʼ said Bill, ʽin the form⟳ of a common cowshed, is burnin' about nor'-nor'-east as the crow flies.ʼ”

“The distance from Sarajevo to Ploce is 75 miles as the crow flies, but because of the difficult terrain the new line is 120 miles long.”

“Then it told me the distance between the two is 331 miles, which is totally irrelevant as that's as the crow flies and not the 393 miles of the rail route.”

CEFR level