fleeting
/ˈfliːtɪŋ/ adjective, noun
Also a form of fleet
- adjective Passing quickly; of short duration.
- adjective That which flees, especially quickly; fugitive.
- noun (US, rail transport) An automatic operation mode of an absolute signal that reserves a route for several trains following one another, without the need for dispatcher to re-set the route for each train.
Synonyms
transient ephemeral fugacious earthly brief deciduous evanescent flying fugitive instant momentary passing perishable quick seasonable short short-lived temporary transitive transitory momentaneous
Etymology
From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet + -ing.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fleeting”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details