FLITTING

FLIT

flit, flutter, fleet, dart

(verb) move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart; “The hummingbird flitted among the branches”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

flitting

present participle of flit

Noun

flitting (plural flittings)

The motion of something that flits.

(Scotland, northern England) The act of moving from one residence to another; moving house.

Source: Wiktionary


Flit"ting, n.

1. A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.

2. A removal from one habitation to another. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.] A neighbor had lent his cart for the flitting, and it was now standing loaded at the door, ready to move away. Jeffrey.

Flitt"ing, Flytt"ing, n.

Definition: Contention; strife; scolding; specif., a kind of metrical contest between two persons, popular in Scotland in the 16th century. [Obs. or Scot.]

These "flytings" consisted of alternate torrents of sheer Billingsgate poured upon each other by the combatants. Saintsbury.

FLIT

Flit, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flitted; p. pr. & vb. n. Flitting.] Etym: [OE. flitten, flutten, to carry away; cf. Icel. flytja, Sw. flytta, Dan. flytte. Fleet, v. 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, a.

Definition: Nimble; quick; swift. [Obs.] See Fleet.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

10 June 2025

COMMUNICATIONS

(noun) the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.); “communications is his major field of study”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, on 25 September 2016, the Birla Institute of Management Technology (India) in Uttar Pradesh, India, constructed the largest coffee cups pyramid consisting of 23,821 cups. They used paper takeaway coffee cups to build the pyramid.

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