flit
/flɪt/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms flits flitting flitted
- noun A fluttering or darting movement.
- noun A sudden departure from a property. “I did a flit, as the landlord was due to arrive to collect the rent.”
- noun (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state. “My computer just had a flit.”
- noun (dated, slang) A homosexual.
- verb To move about rapidly and nimbly. “the low buzz of insects flitting over the flowers”
- verb To move quickly from one location to another.
- verb (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time. “My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.”
- verb (UK, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
- verb To move a tethered animal to a new grazing location.
- verb To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
- adjective (poetic, obsolete) Fast, nimble.
- noun (networking) A flow control unit or flow control digit. “header flit”
Synonyms
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”).
Short for fl(ow control un)it or fl(ow control dig)it.
Webster’s 1913
- verb 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.
- verb To flutter; to rove on the wing. Dryden.
- adjective Nimble; quick; swift. [Obs.] See Fleet.
Etymology [OE. flitten, flutten, to carry away; cf. Icel. flytja, Sw. flytta, Dan. flytte. Fleet, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “flit”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details