• Flit

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -ɪt

    Origin

    From Old Norse flytja ("to move"). Cognate with Swedish: flytta, Danish/Norwegian: flytte, Faroese: flyta.

    Full definition of flit

    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.

    Verb

    1. To move about rapidly and nimbly.
      • TennysonA shadow flits before me.
      • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6There 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.
      • HookerIt became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did 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. (UK, Scotland, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
      • 1855, Anthony_Trollope, , page 199 (ISBN 0679405518)After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.
    5. To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
      • Drydenthe free soul to flitting air resigned

    Related terms

    Adjective

    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 ....

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