Also 6 flete. Cf. FLIT a. [Not found before 16th c., but prob. much older; cogn. with or a. ON. fliótr swift; f. root of FLEET v.1]
1. Characterized by power of swift onward movement; swift, nimble. Said primarily of living beings, their limbs and movements; hence of things viewed as self-moving, thoughts, etc. Not in colloquial use.
a. 1529. Skelton, Replyc., 49.
| With baudy wordes vnmete | |
| Your tonges were to flete; | |
| Your sermon was nat swete; | |
| Ye were nothyng discrete; | |
| Ye were in a dronken here. |
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 35. It is euidently seene that the fleetest fish swalloweth the delicatest bait: that the highest soaring Hauke traineth to ye lure: and that ye wittiest braine, is inuegled with the sodeine view of alluring vanities.
1588. Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 261.
| Seemeth their conference, their conceits haue wings, | |
| Fleeter then arrows, bullets wind, thoght, swifter things. | |
| Ibid. (1596), Tam. Shr., Induct. i. 26. | |
| If Eccho were as fleete, | |
| I would esteeme him worth a dozen such. |
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 313.
| In Mail thir horses clad, yet fleet and strong, | |
| Prauncing their riders bore, the flower and choice | |
| Of many Provinces from bound to bound. |
1752. Chesterf., Lett., III. cclxxix. 281. With your knowledge and parts, if adorned by manners and graces, what may you not hope one day to be? But without them, you will be in the situation of a man who should be very fleet of one leg but very lame of the other.
1781. Cowper, A. Selkirk, 41.
| How fleet is a glance of the mind! | |
| Compared with the speed of its flight, | |
| The tempest itself lags behind, | |
| And the swift-wingèd arrows of light. |
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. v.
| There the slow blind-worm left his slime | |
| On the fleet limbs that mocked at time. |
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 126. The antelope is supposed to be the fleetest quadruped on earth.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xiv. 377. The King was at the banquet (October 1?) when a messenger appeared, who had sped, with a pace fleeter even than that of his own march, from the distant coast of Sussex.
2. Evanescent, shifting, passing away; not durable or lasting. poet.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Cui Bono, v.
| This goodly pile, upheaved by Wyatt’s toil, | |
| Perchance than Holland’s edifice more fleet, | |
| Again red Lemnos’ artisan may spoil; | |
| The fire-alarm and midnight drum may beat, | |
| And all be strewed ysmoking at your feet! |
1877. Bryant, Poems, The Poet, iv.
| Seize the great thought, ere yet its power be past, | |
| And bind, in words, the fleet emotion fast. |
3. quasi-adv. Quickly, swiftly. poet.
1587. M. Grove, Pelops & Hipp. (1878), 82.
| When a man doth meete | |
| With such as stand more than his match, | |
| his winning goes to fleete. |
1790. A. Wilson, Thunderstorm, Poet. Wks. (1846), 33.
| Fleet fled the shades of night, waked from the grove, | |
| Glad chant the birds, soft coos the hermit dove. |
1878. Stevenson, Inland Voy., 103. The foliage closed so thickly in front, that there seemed to be no issue; only a thicket of willows, overtopped by elms and poplars, under which the river ran flush and fleet, and where a kingfisher flew past like a piece of the blue sky.
4. Comb.: fleet-foot a., poet. = next; fleet-footed, a., fleet of foot, swift in movement; also fig.; † fleet-hound, ? a greyhound; fleet-winged a., having fleet wings, swift of flight.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 559.
| Hot, faint, and wearie, with her hard imbracing, | |
| Like a wild bird being tam’d with too much handling, | |
| Or as the *fleet-foot Roe that’s tyr’d with chasing, | |
| Or like the froward infant stild with dandling. |
1865. Swinburne, Atalanta, 6.
| And Pan by noon and Bacchus by night, | |
| Fleeter of foot than the fleet-foot kid, | |
| Follows with dancing and fills with delight | |
| The Mænad and the Bassarid. |
a. 1743. Savage, To Bessy, Countess of Rochford, Wks. 1775, I. 165.
| Weep not the scenes thro’ which my life must run, | |
| Tho’ fate, *fleet-footed, scents thy languid son. |
1791. Cowper, Odyss, II. 12.
| His hounds | |
| Fleet-footed follow’d him a faithful pair. |
1832. Longf., Coplas de Manrique, lii.
| Fleet-footed is the approach of woe, | |
| But with a lingering step and slow | |
| Its form departs. |
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 1037/4. An old white *fleet-hound Bitch. Ibid. (1680), No. 1550/4. A Brown spotted Foxhound Bitch … a sharp long Red Head, like a Fleet Hound.
1593. Shaks., The Rape of Lucrece, 1216.
| For fleet-wing’d duetie with thoghts feathers flies, | |
| Poore Lucrece cheeks unto her maid seem so, | |
| As winter meads when sun doth melt their snow. |
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, IV. 179.
| Bare her, the last of the Titan and Giant brood,—it is said— | |
| Fleet-winged, speedy of foot, a colossal monster and dread. |
