flit
verbEtymology 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”).
1
To move about rapidly and nimbly.
- A shadow flits before me, / Not thou, but like to thee; […]1855, Tennyson, Maud
- 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.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:
2
To move quickly from one location to another.
- 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.1597, Richard Hooker, chapter 5, in Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie:
- 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.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 116–117:
3
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
- My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
- After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, →ISBN, page 199:
- […] 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.1859, “The Cat on the Dovrefell”, in George Dasent, transl., Popular Tales from the Norse:
5
To move a tethered animal to a new grazing location.
6
To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
- the free soul to flitting air resign'd1697, 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: