flitter

present singular third person flitters · participle present flittering · participle past flittered · past flittered

1. To scatter in pieces.
2. To move about rapidly and nimbly.
3. To move quickly from one condition or location to another.

   There were two bugs flittering on either side of her.

   2006, Katherine Macinnis, Kelsar, Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, page 60

   2 more examples

   How she remembered the gray-feathered titmouse flittering about as she stared unbelievingly at the grave of her sister and clung to Reese, then five years old.

   2003, Rudy Gray, D'n'd, iUniverse, page 41

   The back of the group flittered in and out of my view, pulling me forward with only dim hopes of success.

   2014, Daniel Freeman, “The Conquest”, in College Essays That Made a Difference, 6th edition, Penguin Random House, page 129

4. To flutter or quiver.

plural flitters

1. A fluttering movement

   A waxing moon riding high in the sky and a flitter of bats about the rooftops, dipping and swerving as they gathered up the gnats that danced there in ephemeral clouds.

   2014, Peter Ashby, The Name of Seven

2. A rag; a tatter; a small piece or fragment.

   Without a flitter of a blanket o'er me

   1832, Paddy Kelly's Budget

   1 more example

   But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery. Flitters of perforated starch entwine an ear.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

3. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genus Hyarotis.
4. literatureA small aircraft or spacecraft.

   The flitter tumbled from the shimmering throat of the wormhole transit route from Port Sol to Earthport.

   1994, Stephen Baxter, Ring, →ISBN, page 43

   3 more examples

   Then all three went out to the flitter. A tiny speedster, really; a torpedo bearing stubby wings and the ludicrous tail-surfaces, the multifarious driving-, braking-, side-, top-, and under-jets so characteristic of the tricky, cranky, but ultra-maneuverable breed.

   1941 July, Edward Elmer Smith, “The Vortex Blaster”, in Comet Stories, volume 1, number 5, page 10

   Small flitters were powered and made ready, and everything that carried manual controls was inspected and cleared for action.

   1944 March, George Oliver Smith, “Circle of Confusion”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 33, number 1, page 54

   The small flitters carried by the Queen for exploration work held with comfort a two-man crew—with crowding, three.

   1955, Alice Mary Norton (as Andrew North), Sargasso of Space, page 53

5. A small perceptible feeling

   Hannah couldn't stop a flitter of panic at the thought.

   2014, Love Inspired September 2014

   1 more example

   He sensed Wheeler tensing, the slightest of tremors in the stillness of the ruined chapel, a flitter of irritation.

   2016, Mark Douglas-Home, The Malice of Waves

plural flitters

1. CaribbeanSouthern USarchaicpronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of fritter.