flit

English

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)

1. A fluttering or darting movement.
2. A sudden departure from a property.

   I did a flit, as the landlord was due to arrive to collect the rent.

   let's do a moonlight flit, if the loanshark catches us here tomorrow without the money to pay our debts, he'll break our fingers.

3. (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.

   My computer just had a flit.

4. (dated, slang) A homosexual.
   • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] 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

• do a flit
• do a moonlight flit
• moonlight flit

Verb

flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flitting, simple past and past participle flitted)

1. 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[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →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.

2. 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.

3. (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.

   My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.

4. (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.

5. To move a tethered animal to a new grazing location.
6. 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

Czech: poletovat impf Esperanto: flirti (eo) Finnish: säntäillä (fi), pyrähdellä (fi), häilähtää, häilähdellä (fi), vilahdella (fi), liihotella (fi) French: voltiger (fr), voleter (fr), papillonner (fr) Maori: kairērere Russian: порха́ть (ru) impf (porxátʹ) (like a butterfly or a bird)

to move quickly from one location to another

Czech: pendlovat impf, poletovat impf, těkat (cs) impf, přelétávat impf Finnish: sännätä (fi), pyrähtää (fi), vilahtaa, liihotella (fi) French: virevolter (fr) German: gaukeln (de) Italian: svolazzare (it) Maori: tītakataka, pītakataka, kairērere Russian: носи́ться (ru) impf (nosítʹsja) Spanish: revolotear (es)

to unpredictably change state for short periods

Finnish: pätkiä (fi) Russian: барахли́ть (ru) impf (baraxlítʹ)

See also

• dart
• dash
• flick
• flicker
• flirt
• lunge

Adjective

flit (comparative more flit, superlative most flit)

1. (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 [...].

   • 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, Sophocles’ King Oedipus: A Version of the Modern Stage, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC:

     To that god-trodden western shore, as flit benighted birds.

Derived terms

• flitsome
• flitter
• flitty

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:

flit

Wikipedia

Short for fl(ow control un)it or fl(ow control dig)it.

Noun

flit (plural flits)

1. (networking) A flow control unit or flow control digit.

   header flit

Anagrams

• ILTF, lift

Indonesian

Noun

flit (plural flit-flit)

1. insect killer

Middle English

Noun

flit

1. alternative form of flyt

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

flit m (definite singular fliten, uncountable)

1. (pre-2012) alternative form of flid m

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *flit, from Proto-Germanic *flītaz, for which compare *flītan (“to strive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flit/

Noun

flit n

1. argument, fight
2. arguing, fighting
3. contest, competition

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

• flitcræft
• flitfull
• flitġeorn
• flitmǣlum
• ġeflit

Related terms

• flītan

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English flit, from Old Norse flytja.

Verb

flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flittin, simple past and past participle flittit)

1. To move house.
2. To flit.

Derived terms

• munelicht flittin