Chiefly dial. Also 7 flat, 7–9 flet, (8 flit). [f. ME. flet, pa. pple. of FLEET v.2 Cf. FLEETEN, FLATTEN, FLOTTEN.] Of milk: Skimmed. Also fleet cheese, cheese made of skimmed milk.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 517. In Elsatia a Countrey of Germany, they fat them [Hogs] with … Barly-meal wet with flat milk.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 335/1. Terms used by Dairy People about making of Cheese and Butter…. Flet and unflet Milk Cheese.
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, III. 498. Whey, flit Milk, Wash, Grains.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 230. The milk which is drawn from the cow morning and evening, is poured into leads, where it stands forty-eight hours before the flet-milk is run off.
1823. Moor, Suffolk Words, s.v. Fiet, Cheese made of this milk [flet-milk] is called Flet-cheese.
1882. Lanc. Gloss., Flet-milk.
