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.

Hover vs Flit - What's the difference?

hover | flit | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between hover and flit

is that hover is to float in the air while flit is to move about rapidly and nimbly.

As nouns the difference between hover and flit

is that hover is a cover; a shelter; a protection while flit is a fluttering or darting movement.

As an adjective flit is

fast, nimble.

hover

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) hoveren (frequentative of hove).

Verb

(en verb)
  • To float in the air.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
  • To linger in one place.
  • * 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)
  • The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlor floor, and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at hand, and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror.
  • To waver, or be uncertain.
  • (computing) To place the cursor over a hyperlink or icon without clicking.
  • Derived terms
    * * hoverboat * hoverbike * hovercar * hoverchair * hovercraft

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cover; a shelter; a protection.
  • (Carew)
    (Charles Kingsley)
    (Webster 1913) ----

    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

    * ----