flitter

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈflɪtɚ/,
• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)

From Middle English flytteren, frequentative form of flitten, flytten, flütten, possibly from Old Norse flytja (“to carry about, convey”), equivalent to flit +‎ -er (frequentative suffix).

flitter (third-person singular simple present flitters, present participle flittering, simple past and past participle flittered)

1. To scatter in pieces.
2. To move about rapidly and nimbly.
3. To move quickly from one condition or location to another.
   • 2003, Rudy Gray, D'n'd, iUniverse, page 41:

     How she remembered the gray-feathered titmouse flittering about as she stared unbelievingly at the grave of her sister and clung to Reese, then five years old.

   • 2006, Katherine Macinnis, Kelsar, Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, page 60:

     There were two bugs flittering on either side of her.

   • 2014, Daniel Freeman, “The Conquest”, in College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th edition, Penguin Random House, page 129:

     The back of the group flittered in and out of my view, pulling me forward with only dim hopes of success.

4. To flutter or quiver.

• flitter down
• flittermouse
• flittery

From flit +‎ -er.

flitter (plural flitters)

1. A fluttering movement
   • 2014, Peter Ashby, The Name of Seven:

     A waxing moon riding high in the sky and a flitter of bats about the rooftops, dipping and swerving as they gathered up the gnats that danced there in ephemeral clouds.

2. A rag; a tatter; a small piece or fragment.
   • 1832, Paddy Kelly's Budget:

     Without a flitter of a blanket o'er me

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery. Flitters of perforated starch entwine an ear.

3. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genus Hyarotis.
4. (science fiction) A small aircraft or spacecraft.
   • 1941 July, Edward Elmer Smith, “The Vortex Blaster”, in Comet Stories, volume 1, number 5, page 10:

     Then all three went out to the flitter. A tiny speedster, really; a torpedo bearing stubby wings and the ludicrous tail-surfaces, the multifarious driving-, braking-, side-, top-, and under-jets so characteristic of the tricky, cranky, but ultra-maneuverable breed.

   • 1944 March, George Oliver Smith, “Circle of Confusion”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 33, number 1, page 54:

     Small flitters were powered and made ready, and everything that carried manual controls was inspected and cleared for action.

   • 1955, Alice Mary Norton (as Andrew North), Sargasso of Space, page 53:

     The small flitters carried by the Queen for exploration work held with comfort a two-man crew—with crowding, three.

   • 1994, Stephen Baxter, Ring, →ISBN, page 43:

     The flitter tumbled from the shimmering throat of the wormhole transit route from Port Sol to Earthport.

5. A small perceptible feeling
   • 2014, Love Inspired September 2014:

     Hannah couldn't stop a flitter of panic at the thought.

   • 2016, Mark Douglas-Home, The Malice of Waves:

     He sensed Wheeler tensing, the slightest of tremors in the stillness of the ruined chapel, a flitter of irritation.

flitter (plural flitters)

1. (archaic Southern US, Caribbean) Pronunciation spelling of fritter.

• flat as a flitter

• (aircraft): Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “flitter”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 66.
• (aircraft): Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “flitter n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
• “flitter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Audio:

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flitter

1. inflection of flittern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative