Library / English Dictionary

FLIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: flitted    , flitting   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A secret move (to avoid paying debts)

Example:

they did a moonlight flit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("flit" is a kind of...):

move; relocation (the act of changing your residence or place of business)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sudden quick movement

Synonyms:

dart; flit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("flit" is a kind of...):

motility; motion; move; movement (a change of position that does not entail a change of location)

Derivation:

flit (move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart

Example:

The hummingbird flitted among the branches

Synonyms:

dart; fleet; flit; flutter

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "flit" is one way to...):

hurry; speed; travel rapidly; zip (move very fast)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "flit"):

butterfly (flutter like a butterfly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

flit (a sudden quick movement)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He spends his days flitting through the woods with his shot-gun and his butterfly-net, and his evenings in mounting the many specimens he has acquired.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once, as though a warning had in vague ways flitted through his intelligence, he turned his head and looked back at the overturned sled, at his team-mates, and at the two men who were calling to him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

When I slept or was absent, the forms of the venerable blind father, the gentle Agatha, and the excellent Felix flitted before me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As he went out into the rigorous night, I saw the lonely figure flit away before us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His eyes never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O'Brien.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A little way off, beyond a line of scattered juniper-trees, which marked the pathway to the church, a white, dim figure flitted in the direction of the tomb.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale!” and slapping his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the darkness, amid a shout of laughter, in which the vanquished joined as merrily as the victor.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The rain beat strongly against the panes, the wind blew tempestuously: "One lies there," I thought, "who will soon be beyond the war of earthly elements. Whither will that spirit—now struggling to quit its material tenement—flit when at length released?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Though the cook had a cubby-hole of a state-room opening off from the cabin, in the cabin itself he had never dared to linger or to be seen, and he flitted to and fro, once or twice a day, a timid spectre.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I will tell, too, of the great nocturnal white thing—to this day we do not know whether it was beast or reptile—which lived in a vile swamp to the east of the lake, and flitted about with a faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)