flit
verb
- flit
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L320758 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /flɪt/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English flitten, flytten, from Old Norse flytja (“to move”), from Proto-Germanic *flutjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow; run”). Cognate Icelandic flytja, Swedish flytta, Danish flytte, Norwegian flytte, Faroese flyta. Compare also Saterland Frisian flitskje (“to rush; run quickly”).
- Fast, nimble.
“And in his hand two darts exceeding flit, / And deadly sharpe he held [...].”
“To that god-trodden western shore, as flit benighted birds.”
noun
Etymology: Short for fl(ow control un)it or fl(ow control dig)it.
- A flow control unit or flow control digit.
“header flit”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English flitten, flytten, from Old Norse flytja (“to move”), from Proto-Germanic *flutjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow; run”). Cognate Icelandic flytja, Swedish flytta, Danish flytte, Norwegian flytte, Faroese flyta. Compare also Saterland Frisian flitskje (“to rush; run quickly”).
- To move about rapidly and nimbly.
“A shadow flits before me, / Not thou, but like to thee; […]”
“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.”
- To move quickly from one location to another.
“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.”
“The chevalier's manner was now completely altered; and Francesca wondered within herself that he could be so amusing, as he exerted himself to describe the various visitors who flitted to and fro.”
- To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
“My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.”
- To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
“After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.”
“[…] 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 move a tethered animal to a new grazing location.
- To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
“the free soul to flitting air resign'd”