flit
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Remove ads
Etymology 1
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”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /flɪt/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪt
Noun
flit (plural flits)
- A fluttering or darting movement.
- (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.
- My computer just had a flit.
- (dated, slang) A homosexual.
- 1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 18, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC:
- The other end of the bar was full of flits. They weren't too flitty-looking—I mean they didn't have their hair too long or anything—but you could tell they were flits anyway.
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 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Chapter 6”, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:
- 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, chapter 5, in Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie:
- 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.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 116–117:
- 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.
- (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
- My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
- (UK, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
- 1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, →ISBN, page 199:
- After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.
- 1859, “The Cat on the Dovrefell”, in George Dasent, transl., Popular Tales from the Norse:
- […] 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.
- 1697, Virgil, “The Tenth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- the free soul to flitting air resign'd
Translations
to move about rapidly and nimbly
|
to move quickly from one location to another
|
See also
Adjective
flit (comparative more flit, superlative most flit)
- (poetic, obsolete) Fast, nimble.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- And in his hand two darts exceeding flit, / And deadly sharpe he held [...].
Etymology 2
Short for flow control unit or flow control digit.
Noun
flit (plural flits)
- (networking) A flow control unit or flow control digit.
- header flit
Anagrams
Remove ads
Noun
flit (first-person possessive flitku, second-person possessive flitmu, third-person possessive flitnya)
Noun
flit
- Alternative form of flyt
Noun
flit m (definite singular fliten, uncountable)
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *flit.
Pronunciation
Noun
flit n
Usage notes
- By the written period, flit almost exclusively appears in compounds; otherwise the synonym ġeflit is used. See there for usage notes, and for evidence that the /i/ is short.
Declension
Strong a-stem:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | flit | flitu |
| accusative | flit | flitu |
| genitive | flites | flita |
| dative | flite | flitum |
Derived terms
Related terms
Remove ads
Verb
flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flittin, simple past flittit, past participle flittit)
- To move house.
- To flit.
Derived terms
Remove ads
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads