1. intr. Of birds, etc.: To flit about, to fly with low or short flights; to flutter. Also with by.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 94.
| Somtyme by me she sat, | |
| when she had playde her fyll, | |
| And euer when she rested had | |
| aboute she flyttered styll. |
1600. F. Walker, Sp. Mandeville, 153 a. Their sight is so sharpe and pearcing, that flittering ouer the sea which beateth vpon the same Rock, they see the fish through the water, which incontinentlie plunging themselues into the same, they snappe vp with such facilitie, that it is scarcely to be beleeued but of him that hath seene it.
1797. Monthly Mag., III. March, 220/1, ‘To Night.’
| To lift the night bird’s distant cry, | |
| To mark the quick bat flitter by. |
transf. 1483. Liber Festivalis (Caxton), E j (Pentecost). In lykenesse of tonges brennyng not smertyng … lightenyng not fliteryng.
1544. Phaer, Regim. Lyfe (1553), B j a. The peyne is flyttering from one place to an other, without heuynes.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. xli. 245. A thought commeth vpon a man … sleeping, and it flittereth before him.
a. 1593. H. Smith, Serm., Christians Practice (1637), 252. Like unto a shittle, which flittereth from the hand of a childe.
1823. Lamb, Elia (1860), 137. Are the stiff-wigged living figures, that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothic in appearance?
1878. P. W. Wyatt, Hardrada, 7.
| So goes he to fell Hela’s murky shades | |
| Where light of day into dim twilight fades; | |
| And flitter the pale ghosts by Giall’s shore. |
† b. To move the wings ineffectually. In quot. transf.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 209. Hee began to flitter with his hands, in steede of wings; and when hee thought he had soared enough, he committed himselfe to the winde and weather, and fell downe head-long to the ground, and bruised his bones to peeces, and, like a vaineglorious Coxcombe, there ended his life.
† 2. a. Of a person: To shift about in mind; to waver. b. Of a flower: To fade, wither. Obs.
1542. Recorde, Gr. Artes, B iiij. Many there be so vnconstant of mynde, that flytter and turne with euery winde.
1577. Harrison, England, III. viii. (1878), II. 53. These floures are gathered in the morning before the rising of the sunne, which [otherwise] would cause them to welke or flitter.
1847. Halliwell, Flitter, to hang or droop.
† 3. To fly all about; to fly to or into dust, pieces, etc. Of the sea: To break up in foam. Obs.
1548. Recorde, Urin. Physick (1665), v. 18. Unequal [substance of urine] is contrary, when it is thinner in one part then in another, or flittered out, and not joyntly and uniformly Joynted together.
1557. K. Arthur (Copland), V. iv. Than the dragon … smote the bore al to powder both flesh and bones that it flyttered all abrode on the sea.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 23. Vnder hauing cabbans, where seas doo flitter in arches.
1664. Cotton, Scarronides, 183.
| Have you not seen below the Sphere | |
| A mortal Drink call’d Bottle-Beer, | |
| How by the Tapster, when the Stopple | |
| Is ravish’d from the teeming Bottle, | |
| It bounces, foams, and froths, and flitters, | |
| As if ’twere troubl’d with the Squitters? |
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 126. Others flitter’d as ’twere, or flown all to pieces.
a. 1677. Manton, Serm., Ps. cxix. 80. Solinus telleth us, that the apples of Sodom are to sight very beautiful and fair, but the compass of the rind doth only contain a sooty matter, which flitters into dust as soon as touched: this is a fit emblem of a hypocrite, or a heart not sound with God.
4. trans. To make to flit; to move rapidly backwards and forwards; to shuffle (cards). rare.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 243. She promised everything for dinner, leaving us to choose; but as a skilful juggler flitters the cards before you, and, while he seems to offer all, forces upon you the one he wishes, so we found that whenever we undertook to select from her voluble bill of fare, we had in some unaccountable manner always ordered sea-fish.
1893. R. Le Gallienne, An Ode to Spring, in Westm. Gaz., 16 Feb. 2/3.
| And many a silly thing | |
| That hops and cheeps, | |
| And perks his tiny tail, | |
| And sideway peeps, | |
| And flitters little wing, | |
| Seems in his consequential way | |
| To tell of Spring. |
Hence † Flittered ppl. a., dispersed, scattered; Flittering ppl. a., flitting about, fluttering; trembling; † shifting, unstable, fleeting.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. cii. (1566), 250. The dayes wherin I passe my life are lyke the flittering shade.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 84.
| Neauer dooth she laboure to reuoke her flittered issue, | |
| Or to place in cabban, theire floane lyms freshlye reioyning. |
a. 1602. W. Perkins, Cases Consc. (1619), 59. These beginnings of grace (be they neuer so weak) must not be flittering and fleeting, but constant and setled.
1634. Milton, Comus, 214. Thou hovering [MS. flittering] angell girt with golden wings.
1650. Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, II. xiii. 270. Wherein grows an apple, which though it seem fair and ripe, yet cannot be eaten. For, the compass of the outward rinde onely, holds within it an ember-like soot: which being but lightly pressed, evaporates into smoke and becomes flittering dust.
1786. Burns, Again rejoicing Nature, vi.
| And when the lark, ’tween light and dark, | |
| Blythe waukens by the daisy’s side, | |
| And mounts and sings on flittering wings, | |
| A woe-worn ghaist I hameward glide. |
1867. A. Sartoris, Week in Fr. Country-Ho., 9. It was charming to see her unbend so completely, and become so sweet and tender to the poor flittering little nun.
