different between flit vs wing

English

Etymology

From Middle English flitten, flytten, from Old Norse flytja (“to move”), from Proto-Germanic *flutjan?, 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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

flit (plural flits)

1. A fluttering or darting movement.
2. (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.

   My computer just had a flit.

3. (slang) A homosexual.
   • 1951, J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 18:

     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.

Derived terms

• moonlight flit

Verb

flit (third-person singular simple present flits, present participle flitting, simple past and past participle flitted)

1. To move about rapidly and nimbly.
   • 1855, Tennyson, Maud:

     A shadow flits before me, / Not thou, but like to thee; […]

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     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.

2. To move quickly from one location to another.
   • 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Chapter 5:

     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.

3. (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.

   My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.

4. (Britain, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)

   • 1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, page 199 ?ISBN

     After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting, and change his residence.

   • 1859, George Dasent (tr.), Popular Tales from the Norse, "The Cat on the Dovrefell":

     […] we can't give any one house-room just now, for every Christmas Eve such a pack of Trolls come down upon us that we are forced to flit, and haven't so much as a house over our own heads, to say nothing of lending one to any one else.

5. To move a tethered animal to a new, grazing location.
6. To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.

   • the free soul to flitting air resign'd

Related terms

• dart
• dash
• flirt
• lunge

Translations

Adjective

flit (comparative more flit, superlative most flit)

1. (poetic, obsolete) Fast, nimble.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:

     And in his hand two darts exceeding flit, / And deadly sharpe he held [...].

Anagrams

• ILTF, lift

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

flit m (definite singular fliten, uncountable)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2012; superseded by flid m

Scots

Verb

flit (third-person singular present flits, present participle flittin, past flittit, past participle flittit)

1. To move house.
2. To flit.

Derived terms

• munelicht flittin

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish flit, from Middle Low German vl?t, vlît (cognate with German Low German Fliet, Saterland Frisian Fliet, Dutch vlijt, Danish flid, Norwegian Bokmål flid, Norwegian Nynorsk flit, and German Fleiß, Fleiss).

Pronunciation

Noun

flit c

1. diligence, industriousness, energy

   där flitens lampa brinner

   where [someone] works long hours

Declension

Related terms

• flitbetyg
• flitig
• flitpengar

References

• flit in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• flit in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• filt

Westrobothnian

Noun

flit m (definite flitn, dative flitåm)

1. Fly-Tox (insecticide)

English

Etymology

From Middle English winge, wenge, from Old Norse vængr (“wing”), from Proto-Germanic *w?inga, *w?ingan-. Cognate with Danish vinge (“wing”), Swedish vinge (“wing”), Icelandic vængur (“wing”), West Frisian wjuk (“wing”), from *h?weh?- (“to blow”), thus related to wind. Replaced native Middle English fither (from Old English fiþre, from Proto-Germanic *fiþrij?), which merged with fether (from Old English feþer, from Proto-Germanic *feþr?). More at feather.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?ng, IPA^(key): /w??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

wing (plural wings)

1. An appendage of an animal's (bird, bat, insect) body that enables it to fly

2. A fin at the side of a ray or similar fish
3. (slang) Human arm.
4. (aviation) Part of an aircraft that produces the lift for rising into the air.

5. One of the large pectoral fins of a flying fish.
6. One of the broad, thin, anterior lobes of the foot of a pteropod, used as an organ in swimming.
7. (botany) Any membranaceous expansion, such as that along the sides of certain stems, or of a fruit of the kind called samara.
8. (botany) Either of the two side petals of a papilionaceous flower.
9. A side shoot of a tree or plant; a branch growing up by the side of another.
10. Passage by flying; flight.
11. Limb or instrument of flight; means of flight or of rapid motion.
12. A part of something that is lesser in size than the main body, such as an extension from the main building.

13. Anything that agitates the air as a wing does, or is put in winglike motion by the action of the air, such as a fan or vane for winnowing grain, the vane or sail of a windmill, etc.
14. A protruding piece of material on a menstrual pad to hold it in place and prevent leakage.
15. An ornament worn on the shoulder; a small epaulet or shoulder knot.
16. A cosmetic effect where eyeliner curves outward and ends at a point.
17. A faction of a political movement. Usually implies a position apart from the mainstream center position.
18. An organizational grouping in a military aviation service:
    1. (Britain) A unit of command consisting of two or more squadrons and itself being a sub-unit of a group or station.
    2. (US) A larger formation of two or more groups, which in turn control two or more squadrons.
19. (Britain) A panel of a car which encloses the wheel area, especially the front wheels.
20. (nautical) A platform on either side of the bridge of a vessel, normally found in pairs.
21. (nautical) That part of the hold or orlop of a vessel which is nearest the sides. In a fleet, one of the extremities when the ships are drawn up in line, or when forming the two sides of a triangle.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

22. (sports) A position in several field games on either side of the field.

23. (sports) A player occupying such a position, also called a winger
24. (typography, informal, rare) A há?ek.
    • 1985, David Grambs, Literary Companion Dictionary, page 378:

      ? wing, wedge, h?cek, inverted circumflex (Karel ?apek)

26. (theater) One of the unseen areas on the side of the stage in a theatre.
27. (in the plural) The insignia of a qualified pilot or aircrew member.
    • 2004: Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

      Anyone and everyone with wings - press officers, operations specialists, even General Curtis LeMay, commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe - was put on flight duty and took turns flying double shifts for "Operation Vittles."

28. A portable shelter consisting of a fabric roof on a frame, like a tent without sides.
29. On the Enneagram, one of the two adjacent types to an enneatype that forms an individual's subtype of his or her enneatype

Alternative forms

• weng, whing, wyng (all obsolete)

Synonyms

• (panel of a car): fender (US), guard (Australia)
• (sports position): forward
• (U.S. Air Force): delta (U.S. Space Force), garrison (U.S. Space Force)

Hyponyms

• left wing
• right wing

Derived terms

Related terms

• on the wing
• take under one's wing
• wing it
• wait in the wings

Translations

Verb

wing (third-person singular simple present wings, present participle winging, simple past and past participle winged or (nonstandard) wung)

1. (transitive) To injure slightly (as with a gunshot), especially in the wing or arm.
2. (intransitive) To fly.

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

3. (transitive, of a building) To add a wing (extra part) to.
4. (transitive) To act or speak extemporaneously; to improvise; to wing it.

5. (transitive) To throw.
6. (transitive) To furnish with wings.
7. (transitive) To transport with, or as if with, wings; to bear in flight, or speedily.
8. (transitive) To traverse by flying.

Translations

Anagrams

• Gwin, gwin

Middle English

Noun

wing

1. Alternative form of winge

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English wing.

Noun

wing

1. wing

Vilamovian

Pronunciation

Adjective

wing

1. little (by amount)