noun, verb — 5 senses
Etymology From Middle English flit, from Old English flit, ġeflit (“strife, contention”), from Proto-West Germanic *flit. The Old English term had a short vowel, so the modern term must have had its vowel leveled in from the verb at some point in its history. Cognate with Scots flyte (“scolding, chiding, reproof”), Saterland Frisian Fliet (“zeal, diligence”), Dutch vlijt (“zeal, diligence”), German Low German Fliet (“zeal, diligence”), German Fleiß (“zeal, diligence”), Danish flid (“zeal, diligence”), Swedish flit (“zeal, diligence”).
Dialectal a quarrel, dispute, wrangling.
Dialectal a scolding.
Etymology From Middle English flyten (“to argue, quarrel”), from Old English flītan (“to strive, contend”), from Proto-West Germanic *flītan (“to strive, contend”). Akin to German befleissen (“to apply oneself diligently, endeavor”), Swedish beflita (“to apply to, study”), Norwegian Bokmål beflitte (“to endeavour, strive”).
Dialectal to dispute, quarrel, wrangle, brawl.
Dialectal to scold, jeer.
Obsolete to make or utter complaint.
Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.