die like flies

die like flies (third-person singular simple present dies like flies, present participle dying like flies, simple past and past participle died like flies)

1. Synonym of drop like flies
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 196:

     They must have been dying like flies here.