flittermouse

plural flittermice · alternative flear-mouse · alternative flettermouse · alternative flitter-mouse · alternative fluttermouse · alternative flickermouse

1. dialectalA bat (a flying mammal).

   1894, Philip Stewart Robinson, Birds of the Wave and Woodland, Electronic Edition, unnumbered page, The bats wheel overhead, their soft wings crumpling as they turn their somersaults, but never a voice in the air, save sharp needle-points of sound, as flittermouse calls to flittermouse.

   3 more examples

   I thank thee, gentle flittermouse, for these so pleasant memories. Have you ever caught and examined a flittermouse?

   1891, Conway Lloyd Morgan, Animal sketches

   Now while they rested, a flittermouse flew forth from the Witchland booths and went widdershins round the wrastling ground and so returned silently whence she came.

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 22

   They don't bump into folk, blind people don't. They're like flittermice. You never saw two flittermice bump into each other.

   1969, Rayner Heppenstall, The Shearers, page 183