Definify.com
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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Flit
FLIT
,Verb.
I.
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.
Definition 2024
flit
flit
English
Noun
flit (plural flits)
- A fluttering or darting movement.
- (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.
- My computer just had a flit.
- (slang) A homosexual.
Derived terms
Verb
flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flitting, simple past and past participle flitted)
- 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.
- 1855, Tennyson, Maud:
- 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.
- 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Chapter 5:
- (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
- My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
- (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.
- To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
- Dryden
- the free soul to flitting air resigned
- Dryden
Related terms
Translations
to move about rapidly and nimbly
to move quickly from one location to another
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to unpredictably change state for short periods
Adjective
flit (comparative more flit, superlative most flit)
- (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 [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:
Anagrams
Scots
Verb
flit (third-person singular present flits, present participle flittin, past flittit, past participle flittit)
- to move house
- to flit
Derived terms
Swedish
Pronunciation
Etymology
Old Swedish flit, cognate with German Fleiss.
Noun
flit c
- diligence, industriousness, energy
- där flitens lampa brinner
- where [someone] works long hours
- där flitens lampa brinner
Declension
Declension of flit
Related terms
- flitbetyg
- flitig
- flitpengar
References
- flit in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)
- flit in Svenska Akademiens ordbok online.