"fuite" is french which means to escape, to flee. Flight is only in context of planes or flying transportation.
As for the sense of it, you're right, it's either do something, go away, or do nothing.
From Cambridge.org:
> (an act or example of) escape, running away, or avoiding something: > They lost all their possessions during their flight from the invading army.
flight [flahyt]
noun an act or instance of fleeing or running away; hasty departure.
Its usage isn’t extinct, but it is far less common than it used to be and IS largely extinct in casual day to day speech. We would say flee, run away, escape, or any of a dozen other things more often than “flight”