flitter
nounEtymology From flit + -er.
1
A fluttering movement
- A waxing moon riding high in the sky and a flitter of bats about the rooftops, dipping and swerving as they gathered up the gnats that danced there in ephemeral clouds.2014, Peter Ashby, The Name of Seven:
2
A rag; a tatter; a small piece or fragment.
- Without a flitter of a blanket o'er me1832, Paddy Kelly's Budget:
- But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery. Flitters of perforated starch entwine an ear.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
3
Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genus Hyarotis.
4
Literature, Media, Publishing, Science fiction A small aircraft or spacecraft.
- Then all three went out to the flitter. A tiny speedster, really; a torpedo bearing stubby wings and the ludicrous tail-surfaces, the multifarious driving-, braking-, side-, top-, and under-jets so characteristic of the tricky, cranky, but ultra-maneuverable breed.1941 July, Edward Elmer Smith, “The Vortex Blaster”, in Comet Stories, volume 1, number 5, page 10:
- Small flitters were powered and made ready, and everything that carried manual controls was inspected and cleared for action.1944 March, George Oliver Smith, “Circle of Confusion”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 33, number 1, page 54:
2 more examples
- The small flitters carried by the Queen for exploration work held with comfort a two-man crew—with crowding, three.1955, Alice Mary Norton (as Andrew North), Sargasso of Space, page 53:
- The flitter tumbled from the shimmering throat of the wormhole transit route from Port Sol to Earthport.1994, Stephen Baxter, Ring, →ISBN, page 43:
5
A small perceptible feeling
- Hannah couldn't stop a flitter of panic at the thought.2014, Love Inspired September 2014:
- He sensed Wheeler tensing, the slightest of tremors in the stillness of the ruined chapel, a flitter of irritation.2016, Mark Douglas-Home, The Malice of Waves: