Sc. Also 6 flichtir, flych-, flyghter, 9 fleighter. [? f. flicht, FLIGHT v.; see -ER5. Cf. FLAUGHTER v.2]
1. intr. Of a bird: To beat its wings, fly irregularly or feebly, flutter. Of inanimate objects: To flutter, move quivering through the air.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. ix. 33.
| The foul affrayit flichtiris on hir wingis; | |
| Of gret rumour than all the feildis ringis. |
1635. D. Dickson, Pract. Wks. (1845), I. 55. If ye will stir & flichter like a bird in a cage.
1790. A. Wilson, Rabby’s Mistake, Poet. Wks. (1846), 101.
| Doos flighter’t through amang the stacks, | |
| And craws upon the toll-road tracts, | |
| In hungry mood were happin’. |
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxv. It’s just a branch of ivy flightering awa frae the wa’; when the moon was in it lookit unco like a dead man’s arm wi’ a taper in’t.
transf. 1871. P. H. Waddell, Ps. xc. 10. A gliff it gaes by, an’ we flichter hame.
2. To struggle; to tremble, quiver, throb.
1528. Lyndesay, Dream, 302.
| Than we beheld quhare mony ane thousand | |
| Comoun peple laye flichtrand in the fyre. |
1513. Douglas’ Æneis, V. viii. 115.
| Doun duschit the beist dede, on the land can ly | |
| Spreuland, and flychterand in the dede thrawis [cf. FLICKER v. 3]. |
1724. [see ppl. a.].
Hence Flichtering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), II. 162.
| Beneath the brier or brecken bush, | |
| Whene’er I kiss and court my dautie; | |
| Happy and blyth as ane wad wish, | |
| My flighteren heart gangs pittie-pattie. |
1768. A. Ross, Helenore, I. 1737.
| Amidst this horror, sleep did on her steal, | |
| An’ for a wee her flightering breast did heal. |
1785. Burns, Cotter’s Saturday Nt., iii. Th’expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher through To meet their Dad wi’ flichterin noise and glee.
1820. Scott, Monast., iii. ‘Our leddy is half gane already, as ye may see by that fleightering of the ee-lid.’
