Flit Meaning
/flɪt/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA fluttering or darting movement.
nounA sudden departure from a property.
Sentence Examples
My computer just had a flit.
My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
Bright butterflies flit from flower to flower in the garden.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The tiny hummingbird would quickly ____ from one bright flower to another, seeking nectar.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small butterflies would ____ from one flower to another in the bright sunny garden.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English flitten, flytten, from Old Norse flytja (“to move”), from Proto-Germanic *flutjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow; run”). Cognate Icelandic flytja, Swedish flytta, Danish flytte, Norwegian flytte, Faroese flyta. Compare also Saterland Frisian flitskje (“to rush; run quickly”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The other end of the bar was full of flits. They weren't too flitty-looking—I mean they didn't have their hair too long or anything—but you could tell they were flits anyway."
— 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 18, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC:
"There were many apes with faces similar to his own, and further over in the book he found, under "M," some little monkeys such as he saw daily flitting through the trees of his primeval forest. But nowhere was pictured any of his own people; in all the book was none that resembled Kerchak, or Tublat, or Kala."
— 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Chapter 6”, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:
"By their means it became a received opinion, that the souls of men departing this life, do flit out of one body into some other."
— 1597, Richard Hooker, chapter 5, in Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie:
"The chevalier's manner was now completely altered; and Francesca wondered within herself that he could be so amusing, as he exerted himself to describe the various visitors who flitted to and fro."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 116–117:
"After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence."
— 1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, →ISBN, page 199:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The tiny hummingbird would quickly ____ from one bright flower to another, seeking nectar.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small butterflies would ____ from one flower to another in the bright sunny garden.