What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Flit vs Slide - What's the difference?

flit | slide |

As nouns the difference between flit and slide

is that flit is a fluttering or darting movement while slide is an item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.

As verbs the difference between flit and slide

is that flit is to move about rapidly and nimbly while slide is (ergative) to (cause to) move in continuous contact with a surface.

As an adjective flit

is (poetic|obsolete) fast, nimble.

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

    * ----

    slide

    English

    Verb

  • (ergative) To (cause to) move in continuous contact with a surface
  • He slid the boat across the grass.
    The safe slid slowly.
    Snow slides down the side of a mountain.
  • To move on a low-friction surface.
  • The car slid on the ice.
  • * (rfdate), Waller:
  • They bathe in summer, and in winter slide .
  • (baseball) To drop down and skid into a base.
  • Jones slid into second.
  • To lose one’s balance on a slippery surface.
  • He slid while going around the corner.
  • To pass or put imperceptibly; to slip.
  • to slide in a word to vary the sense of a question
  • (obsolete) To pass inadvertently.
  • * Bible, Eccles. xxviii. 26
  • Beware thou slide not by it.
  • To pass along smoothly or unobservedly; to move gently onward without friction or hindrance.
  • A ship or boat slides through the water.
  • * (rfdate), Dryden:
  • Ages shall slide away without perceiving.
  • * (rfdate), Alexander Pope:
  • Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole.
  • (music) To pass from one note to another with no perceptible cessation of sound.
  • To pass out of one's thought as not being of any consequence.
  • * (rfdate), Chaucer:
  • With good hope let he sorrow slide .
  • * (rfdate), Philip Sidney:
  • With a calm carelessness letting everything slide .

    Derived terms

    * let slide

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.
  • The long, red slide was great fun for the kids.
  • A surface of ice, snow, butter, etc. on which someone can slide for amusement or as a practical joke.
  • (Charles Dickens)
  • The falling of large amounts of rubble, earth and stones down the slope of a hill or mountain; avalanche.
  • The slide closed the highway.
  • An inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity, especially one constructed on a mountainside for conveying logs by sliding them down.
  • A mechanism consisting of a part which slides on or against a guide.
  • The act of sliding; smooth, even passage or progress.
  • a slide on the ice
  • * Francis Bacon
  • A better slide into their business.
  • *
  • A lever that can be moved in two directions.
  • A valve that works by sliding, such as in a trombone.
  • A transparent plate bearing an image to be projected to a screen.
  • (baseball) The act of dropping down and skidding into a base
  • (sciences) A flat, rectangular piece of glass on which a prepared sample may be viewed through a microscope.
  • (music, guitar) A hand-held device made of smooth, hard material, used in the practice of slide guitar.
  • A lively dance from County Kerry, in 12/8 time.
  • (geology) A small dislocation in beds of rock along a line of fissure.
  • (Dana)
  • (music) A grace consisting of two or more small notes moving by conjoint degrees, and leading to a principal note either above or below.
  • (phonetics) A sound which, by a gradual change in the position of the vocal organs, passes imperceptibly into another sound.
  • A clasp or brooch for a belt, etc.
  • Synonyms

    * (item of play equipment) slippery dip * (inclined plane on which heavy bodies slide by the force of gravity) chute * (mechanism of a part which slides on or against a guide) runner

    Derived terms

    * landslide * mudslide * water slide * hairslide