flying army

flying army (plural flying armies)

1. (archaic, military) A body of cavalry and infantry, kept in motion, to cover its own garrisons and to keep the enemy in continual alarm.
   • 1749, William Duff, A New and Full, Critical, Biographical, and Geographical History of Scotland:

     a plain demonstration of cowardice in their opposing his late measure of entering England, and pursuing the flying army of the English

• “flying”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.