flitting

Brief, likely to be of short duration.

Adjective

  1. Brief, likely to be of short duration.
    • Poor Margarita's flitting life appeared to concentrate all its powers for this long desired visit, and her eyes seemed to emit a supernatural light, when they were indeed assured that Glentworth stood before her;... -...

Origin

Etymology tree English flit Proto-Germanic *-ungō Old English -ung Middle English -ynge English -ing English flitting From flit + -ing.

Forms

more flitting most flitting

Derived

flittingly

Noun

  1. gerund of flit: the motion of something that flits.
    • the flittings of birds
    • After the flitting of the bats, / When thickest dark did trance the sky, / She drew the casement-curtain by, / And glanced athwart the glooming flats. - 1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume...
    • The hare lends its form to the witch for her twilight flittings and scuddings to the place of some unhallowed rendezvous. - 1845, Dublin University Magazine, volume 25, page 39:
  2. The act of moving from one residence to another; moving house.
    • Uncle Billy came home for the weekend to help with the flitting. - 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 87:

Forms

flittings

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of flit