Reader's question: This new auto dealer opened up with promises to sell cars cheaper than anybody else. But his business turned out to be fly-by-night: he collected people's deposits on new cars and then disappeared with everybody's money.

Could you explain “fly-by-night”?

My comments:

If someone runs an operation during day time in one city, disappears during the night and reemerges the second morning in another, he has a fly-by-night operation. Obviously this kind of business smacks of wrongdoing.

In the above example, the auto dealer collected people’s deposits on new cars and then disappeared with everybody’s money. Fight or flight. In other words, take and money and run - “Fly-by-night” is therefore a perfect phrase for a businessman who is dishonest, unreliable, or for describing shady businesses in general.

Related stories:

Might-have-beens

On top of the world

Button your lip

Pass the buck

Fire sale

Nuts and bolts

Across the board

Be in someone’s shoes

In that vein

The devil you know…

Right out of the gate

Leap-frog

Up the ante

loose ends

Nose-bleed section

Off the rails

Keeping up with the Jones's

Benefits package

Closed-door talk

March Madness

On-again,off-again

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.