| 释义 |
▪ I. flitting, vbl. n.|ˈflɪtɪŋ|
[f. flit v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the vb. flit, in various senses.
a1300Cursor M. 2015 (Cott.) Sua lang wit flitting he þam sloght, þat wine treis he þam wroght. 1529More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1177/2 Yet will he rather abide it and suffer, then by the flyttynge from it, fall in y⊇ dyspleasure of God. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 46 The Sea's continual flitting and shifting its Chanel. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 77 The flittings of the shrieking bat.
2. esp. The action of removing from one abode to another; a removal. Now chiefly north. and Sc. moonlight flitting: removal by moonlight, i.e. by night or by stealth.
c1200Ormin 10781 Forr Galileo bitacneþþ uss Flittinng onn Ennglissh spæche. a1300Cursor M. 12518 (Cott.) Þai..to bethleem þair flitting made. 1623Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. 21 The people returned from Chaldea to Iury..seventy yeeres after their flitting. 1721Kelly Scot. Prov. 145 He has taken a Moon light flitting. 1787Grose Prov. Gloss. s.v. Flit, Two flittings are as bad as one fire. 1804Scott Let. to Ellis 1 Aug. in Lockhart, I had to superintend a removal, or what we call a flitting.
b. concr. The goods, furniture, etc. removed from one place to another at ‘a flitting’. Hence, Baggage, stores.
a1300Cursor M. 3919 (Cott.) Þai bi night þam stal away, Wijf and barn, wit flitting hale. c1425Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxviii. 50 Ðe Schip-men sone..Twrsyt on twa Hors þare flyttyng. c1470Henry Wallace i. 396 All this forsuth sall in our flytting ga. 1637Rutherford Lett. ccl. (1863) II. 158 Those who would take the world and all their flitting on their back, and run away from Christ. 1823J. Wilson Trial Marg. Lyndsay ix. 68 ‘Aye, aye, here's the flitting..frae Braehead.’
†3. Sustenance, maintenance. Cf. flit v. 9.
a1225St. Marher. 22 I pine of prisun þer ha wes iput in, ich hire fluttunge fond ant fleschliche fode. c1230Hali Meid. 27 Me beheoueð his help to fluttunge & to fode.
▪ II. flitting, ppl. a.|ˈflɪtɪŋ|
[f. flit v. + -ing2.]
1. That moves from place to place; moving, roving, migratory. Obs. exc. dial.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 379 Ðe flyttand Wod þai callyd ay Ðat lang tyme eftyre-hend þat day. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 702 In their flitting wanderings. 1764Harmer Observ. iv. ii. 51 This flitting kind of life. 1829J. R. Best Pers. & Lit. Mem. 352 In the course of my moving, or, as they call it in Lincolnshire my flitting life.
†2. Shifting, unstable; variable, inconstant.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) iv. xxix. (1859) 61 Yf a gouernour be not stable, but varyaunt and flytting fro veray stedfastness. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 18 The yielding ayre, which nigh too feeble found Her flitting parts. 1669Woodhead St. Teresa ii. xi. 91 The Imagination..not flitting, but such, as in apprehending and fixing on a thing, there stays. 1697Dryden æneid x. 484 It [the spear] stop'd at once the Passage of his Wind, And the free Soul to flitting Air resign'd.
†3. Fleeting, transitory; evanescent, unsubstantial. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. vi. 78 How veyne and how flittyng a þing it is. c1400Test. Love ii. Chaucer's Wks. (1532) 343 b, Howe passynge is the beautie of flesshly bodyes? more flyttynge than mouable floures of sommer. a1563Becon Jewel of Joy Wks. 1563 II. 34 That oure ioye and reioysyng in the Lorde be not flittynge, transitorye, and of smal continuaunce. 1614Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 455 What is more flitting than time? 1725Pope Odyss. x. 587 The rest are forms of empty æther made, Impassive semblance and a flitting shade.
†4. Floating in water. Obs.—1
c1425Found. St. Bartholomew's 43 Oone of them oonly cleuyd to the flittynge maste.
5. Making short rapid flights; darting lightly from point to point; gliding rapidly and softly; coming intermittently into momentary view.
1620Quarles Feast for Wormes 1207 Conuay'd with speed vpon the nimble wing Of flitting Fame. 1703Pope Thebais 132 Swift as she pass'd, the flitting ghosts withdrew. 1746–7Hervey Medit. (1818) 223 The flitting birds and humming bees. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho vii, The ocean's misty bed, With flitting sails. 1798–9Coleridge Love vii, She listened with a flitting blush. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. iii. xv, A flitting smile playing on his lips.
Hence ˈflittingly adv.; ˈflittingness.
1847Craig, Flittingly. 1860in Worcester (citing Coleridge.) 1884G. Gissing Unclassed III. v. ii. 22 A slight wrinkle might show itself flittingly here and there. a1680Charnock Attrib. God Wks. 1684 I. 231 This flittingness in our Nature. |