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Flit vs Skim - What's the difference?

flit | skim | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between flit and skim

is that flit is to move about rapidly and nimbly while skim is to pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.

As adjectives the difference between flit and skim

is that flit is fast, nimble while skim is having lowered fat content.

As a noun flit

is a fluttering or darting movement.

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

    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

    * ----

    skim

    English

    Verb

    (skimm)
  • To pass lightly; to glide along in an even, smooth course; to glide along near the surface.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, / Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.
  • To pass near the surface of; to brush the surface of; to glide swiftly along the surface of.
  • * Hazlitt
  • Homer describes Mercury as flinging himself from the top of Olympus, and skimming the surface of the ocean.
  • To hasten along with superficial attention.
  • * I. Watts
  • They skim over a science in a very superficial survey.
  • To put on a finishing coat of plaster.
  • to throw an object so it bounces on water (skimming stones )
  • to ricochet
  • to read quickly, skipping some detail
  • I skimmed the newspaper over breakfast.
  • to scrape off; to remove (something) from a surface
  • to clear (a liquid) from scum or substance floating or lying on it, by means of a utensil that passes just beneath the surface.
  • to skim''' milk; to '''skim broth
  • to clear a liquid from (scum or substance floating or lying on it), especially the cream that floats on top of fresh milk
  • to skim cream

    Derived terms

    * skim through * skim over * skim off * skimmed milk * skimmer * semi-skimmed

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (of milk) Having lowered fat content.
  • Derived terms

    * skim milk