▪ I. flitting, vbl. n.
(ˈflɪtɪŋ)
[f. flit v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the vb. flit, in various senses.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2015 (Cott.) Sua lang wit flitting he þam sloght, þat wine treis he þam wroght. 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1177/2 Yet will he rather abide it and suffer, then by the flyttynge from it, fall in y⊇ dyspleasure of God. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 46 The Sea's continual flitting and shifting its Chanel. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 77 The flittings of the shrieking bat. |
2. esp. The action of removing from one abode to another; a removal. Now chiefly north. and Sc. moonlight flitting: removal by moonlight, i.e. by night or by stealth.
| c 1200 Ormin 10781 Forr Galileo bitacneþþ uss Flittinng onn Ennglissh spæche. a 1300 Cursor M. 12518 (Cott.) Þai..to bethleem þair flitting made. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. 21 The people returned from Chaldea to Iury..seventy yeeres after their flitting. 1721 Kelly Scot. Prov. 145 He has taken a Moon light flitting. 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss. s.v. Flit, Two flittings are as bad as one fire. 1804 Scott Let. to Ellis 1 Aug. in Lockhart, I had to superintend a removal, or what we call a flitting. |
b. concr. The goods, furniture, etc. removed from one place to another at ‘a flitting’. Hence, Baggage, stores.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3919 (Cott.) Þai bi night þam stal away, Wijf and barn, wit flitting hale. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxviii. 50 Ðe Schip-men sone..Twrsyt on twa Hors þare flyttyng. c 1470 Henry Wallace i. 396 All this forsuth sall in our flytting ga. 1637 Rutherford Lett. ccl. (1863) II. 158 Those who would take the world and all their flitting on their back, and run away from Christ. 1823 J. Wilson Trial Marg. Lyndsay ix. 68 ‘Aye, aye, here's the flitting..frae Braehead.’ |
† 3. Sustenance, maintenance. Cf. flit v. 9.
| a 1225 St. Marher. 22 I pine of prisun þer ha wes iput in, ich hire fluttunge fond ant fleschliche fode. c 1230 Hali Meid. 27 Me beheoueð his help to fluttunge & to fode. |
▪ II. flitting, ppl. a.
(ˈflɪtɪŋ)
[f. flit v. + -ing2.]
1. That moves from place to place; moving, roving, migratory. Obs. exc. dial.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 379 Ðe flyttand Wod þai callyd ay Ðat lang tyme eftyre-hend þat day. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 702 In their flitting wanderings. 1764 Harmer Observ. iv. ii. 51 This flitting kind of life. 1829 J. R. Best Pers. & Lit. Mem. 352 In the course of my moving, or, as they call it in Lincolnshire my flitting life. |
† 2. Shifting, unstable; variable, inconstant.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) iv. xxix. (1859) 61 Yf a gouernour be not stable, but varyaunt and flytting fro veray stedfastness. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 18 The yielding ayre, which nigh too feeble found Her flitting parts. 1669 Woodhead St. Teresa ii. xi. 91 The Imagination..not flitting, but such, as in apprehending and fixing on a thing, there stays. 1697 Dryden æneid x. 484 It [the spear] stop'd at once the Passage of his Wind, And the free Soul to flitting Air resign'd. |
† 3. Fleeting, transitory; evanescent, unsubstantial. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. vi. 78 How veyne and how flittyng a þing it is. c 1400 Test. Love ii. Chaucer's Wks. (1532) 343 b, Howe passynge is the beautie of flesshly bodyes? more flyttynge than mouable floures of sommer. a 1563 Becon Jewel of Joy Wks. 1563 II. 34 That oure ioye and reioysyng in the Lorde be not flittynge, transitorye, and of smal continuaunce. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 455 What is more flitting than time? 1725 Pope Odyss. x. 587 The rest are forms of empty æther made, Impassive semblance and a flitting shade. |
† 4. Floating in water. Obs.—1
| c 1425 Found. St. Bartholomew's 43 Oone of them oonly cleuyd to the flittynge maste. |
5. Making short rapid flights; darting lightly from point to point; gliding rapidly and softly; coming intermittently into momentary view.
| 1620 Quarles Feast for Wormes 1207 Conuay'd with speed vpon the nimble wing Of flitting Fame. 1703 Pope Thebais 132 Swift as she pass'd, the flitting ghosts withdrew. 1746–7 Hervey Medit. (1818) 223 The flitting birds and humming bees. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho vii, The ocean's misty bed, With flitting sails. 1798–9 Coleridge Love vii, She listened with a flitting blush. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. iii. xv, A flitting smile playing on his lips. |
Hence ˈflittingly adv.; ˈflittingness.
| 1847 Craig, Flittingly. 1860 in Worcester (citing Coleridge.) 1884 G. Gissing Unclassed III. v. ii. 22 A slight wrinkle might show itself flittingly here and there. a 1680 Charnock Attrib. God Wks. 1684 I. 231 This flittingness in our Nature. |