Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLOWN, pp.

(had fled,) in the following phrases, is not good English. Was reason flown. Prior. Sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. Milton. In the former passage, flown is used as the participle of fly or flee, both intransitive verbs, and the phrase should have been, had reason flown or fled. In the latter passage, flown is used for blown, inflated, but most improperly. Flown is the participle of the perfect or past tense of fly, but can not regularly be used in a passive sense.