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Flit vs Fleet - What's the difference?

flit | fleet |

As nouns the difference between flit and fleet

is that flit is a fluttering or darting movement while fleet is a group of vessels or vehicles.

As verbs the difference between flit and fleet

is that flit is to move about rapidly and nimbly while fleet is to float.

As adjectives the difference between flit and fleet

is that flit is fast, nimble while fleet is swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.

As a proper noun Fleet is

the stream that ran where Fleet Street now runs.

flit

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fluttering or darting movement.
  • (physics) A particular, unexpected, short lived change of state.
    • My computer just had a flit .
  • (slang) A homosexual.

    • Verb

  • To move about rapidly and nimbly.
  • * Tennyson
    • A shadow flits before me.
  • * 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.
  • To move quickly from one location to another.
  • * Hooker
    • It became a received opinion, that the souls of men, departing this life, did flit out of one body into some other.
  • (physics) To unpredictably change state for short periods of time.
    • My blender flits because the power cord is damaged.
  • (UK, Scotland, dialect) To move house (sometimes a sudden move to avoid debts).
    • (Wright)
    (Jamieson)
  • * 1855 , , page 199 (ISBN 0679405518)
    • After this manner did the late Warden of Barchester Hospital accomplish his flitting , and change his residence.
  • To be unstable; to be easily or often moved.
  • * Dryden
    • the free soul to flitting air resigned

    Related terms

    * dart * dash * flirt * lunge

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (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

    * ----

    fleet

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A group of vessels or vehicles.
  • Any group of associated items.
  • * 2004 , Jim Hoskins, Building an on Demand Computing Environment with IBM
    • This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.
  • (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
  • (nautical, British Royal Navy) Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear-admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A flood; a creek or inlet, a bay or estuary, a river subject to the tide. cognate to Low German fleet
  • * Matthewes
    • Together wove we nets to entrap the fish / In floods and sedgy fleets .
  • (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
    • Derived terms
    * Fleet * fleet in being * Fleet Street * merchant fleet

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To float.
    • [Antony] "Our sever'd navy too,
    Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like."'' -- Shakespeare, ''Antony and Cleopatra
  • To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of
    • a ship that fleets the gulf
    (Spenser)
  • To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy
  • * Shakespeare
    • Many young gentlemen flock to him, and fleet the time carelessly.
    And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet;'' -- Percy Shelley, ''Rosalind and Helen .
  • (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
    • (Totten)
  • (nautical, obsolete) To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.
  • To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
  • To take the cream from; to skim.

    • Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (literary) Swift in motion; moving with velocity; light and quick in going from place to place; nimble; fast.
  • * Milton
    • In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.
  • * 1908:
  • (uncommon) Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.
    • (Mortimer)