flittermouse
nounEtymology From flitter + mouse (compare flickermouse, flindermouse), after Middle Dutch fleddermuys, vledermuys, vlermuys (Modern Dutch vleermuis), from vledderen, vlederen (“to flutter, float, hover”) + muys (“mouse”). Cognate with West Frisian flearmûs (“bat”), Middle Low German vledermūs (“bat”), German Fledermaus (“bat”), Swedish fladdermus (“bat”) and flädermus (“bat”). More at flitter, flutter, flatter, mouse.
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Dialectal A bat (a flying mammal).
- I thank thee, gentle flittermouse, for these so pleasant memories. Have you ever caught and examined a flittermouse?1891, Conway Lloyd Morgan, Animal sketches:
- 1894, Philip Stewart Robinson, Birds of the Wave and Woodland, Electronic Edition, unnumbered page, The bats wheel overhead, their soft wings crumpling as they turn their somersaults, but never a voice in the air, save sharp needle-points of sound, as flittermouse calls to flittermouse.
2 more examples
- Now while they rested, a flittermouse flew forth from the Witchland booths and went widdershins round the wrastling ground and so returned silently whence she came.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 22:
- They don't bump into folk, blind people don't. They're like flittermice. You never saw two flittermice bump into each other.1969, Rayner Heppenstall, The Shearers, page 183: