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Webster 1913 Edition


Flit

Flit

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Flitted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Flitting
.]
[OE.
flitten
,
flutten
, to carry away; cf. Icel.
flytja
, Sw.
flytta
, Dan.
flytte
. √84. Cf.
Fleet
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
To move with celerity through the air; to fly away with a rapid motion; to dart along; to fleet;
as, a bird
flits
away; a cloud
flits
along.
A shadow
flits
before me.
Tennyson.
2.
To flutter; to rove on the wing.
Dryden.
3.
To pass rapidly, as a light substance, from one place to another; to remove; to migrate.
It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did
flit
out of one body into some other.
Hooker.
4.
To remove from one place or habitation to another.
[Scot. & Prov. Eng.]
Wright. Jamieson.
5.
To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
And the free soul to
flitting
air resigned.
Dryden.

Flit

,
Adj.
Nimble; quick; swift.
[Obs.]
See
Fleet
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Flit

FLIT

,
Verb.
I.
[Heb. It is undoubtedly from the same root as fleet, which see.]
1.
To fly away with a rapid motion; to dart along; to move with celerity through the air. We say, a bird flits away, or flits in air; a cloud flits along.
2.
To flutter; to rove on the wing.
3.
To remove; to migrate; to pass rapidly, as a light substance, from one place to another.
It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did flit out of one body into some other.
4.
In Scotland, to remove from one habitation to another.
5.
To be unstable; to easily or often moved.
An the free soul to flitting air resigned.

FLIT

,
Adj.
Nimble; quick; swift. Obs. [See Fleet.]

Definition 2024


flit

flit

English

Noun

flit (plural flits)

  1. A fluttering or darting movement.
  2. (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.
    My computer just had a flit.
  3. (slang) A homosexual.

Derived terms

Verb

flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flitting, simple past and past participle flitted)

  1. To move about rapidly and nimbly.
    • 1855, Tennyson, Maud:
      A shadow flits before me, / Not thou, but like to thee; []
    • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6
      There were many apes with faces similar to his own, and further over in the book he found, under "M," some little monkeys such as he saw daily flitting through the trees of his primeval forest. But nowhere was pictured any of his own people; in all the book was none that resembled Kerchak, or Tublat, or Kala.
  2. To move quickly from one location to another.
    • 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Chapter 5:
      By their means it became a received opinion, that the souls of men departing this life, do flit out of one body into some other.
  3. (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
    My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
  4. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)
    • 1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, page 199 (ISBN 0679405518)
      After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.
    • 1859, George Dasent (tr.), Popular Tales from the Norse, "The Cat on the Dovrefell":
      [] we can't give any one house-room just now, for every Christmas Eve such a pack of Trolls come down upon us that we are forced to flit, and haven't so much as a house over our own heads, to say nothing of lending one to any one else.
  5. To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
    • Dryden
      the free soul to flitting air resigned

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

flit (comparative more flit, superlative most flit)

  1. (poetic, obsolete) Fast, nimble.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:
      And in his hand two darts exceeding flit, / And deadly sharpe he held [...].

Anagrams


Scots

Verb

flit (third-person singular present flits, present participle flittin, past flittit, past participle flittit)

  1. to move house
  2. to flit

Derived terms


Swedish

Pronunciation

Etymology

Old Swedish flit, cognate with German Fleiss.

Noun

flit c

  1. diligence, industriousness, energy
    där flitens lampa brinner
    where [someone] works long hours

Declension

Related terms

References