Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 5 fletyn, 6–7 flet(e, 6, 9 dial. flit, 6– fleet; pa. pple. 5 flet. [The precise formation is somewhat uncertain; prob. f. OE. flét cream, f. root of fléotan FLEET v.1; cf. Sw. dial. flöta, MDa. flöde (mod. af-flöde) of equivalent etymology. But as the Du. vlieten (= FLEET v.1) occurs in this sense, the Eng. vb. may possibly be a use of FLEET v.1]
1. trans. To take off that which floats upon the surface of a liquid; esp. to skim (milk, the cream from milk). Also with compl.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 166/2. Flet, as mylke or oþer lyke, despumatus. Ibid., 167/1. Fletyn, or skomyn ale, or pottys, or oþer lycoure that hovythe, despumo.
1530. Palsgr., 551/2. Let us go flete this mylke agaynst she come to make her butter.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 146 b. The creame that swims aloft, is fletted off.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 388. The fat which is fleeted or skimmed from the broth wherin dormice and rats be sodden.
1615. Markham, The English House-wife, II. ii. (1668), 78. Take a Gammon of Bacon, and onely wash it clean, and then boyl it on a soft gentle fire, till it be boyl’d as tender as possible, ever and anon fleeting it clean, that by all means it may boyl white.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Milk, You ought to fleet it [milk] by the Heat of warm Water.
a. 1796. Vancouver, in A. Young, Ess. Agric. (1813), II. 285. The milk of which cows (as well as that of the other dairies) after standing 24 hours, is fleeted.
1836. W. D. Cooper, Sussex Gloss., Fleet or Flit, to skim milk.
b. transf. and fig.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 336. It is he Philautus that will fleete all the fat from thy [the] beard.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. cxcvi. 1221. Wee shall not occupie the trade of marchandice by sea, we shall not flit off the fatte thereof.
1632. Quarles, Div. Fancies, II. xxviii. (1660), 60.
| We Fleet the Mornings for our own Design; | |
| Perchance the Flotten Afternoons are thine. |
1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 4. If the schools may be resembled to the ring, the library may the better be compared to the diamond therein; not so much for the bunching forth beyond the rest, as the preciousness thereof, in some respects equalling any in Europe, and in most kinds exceeding all in England: yet our land hath been ever φιλοβιβλος, much given to the love of books; and let us fleet the cream of a few of the primest libraries in all ages.
2. ‘To Fleate. To skim fresh water off the sea, as practised at the mouths of the Rhone, the Nile, &c.’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867).
Hence Fleeted ppl. a.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Laict esburré, fleeted milke. Ibid. (1583), Campo di Fior, 161. Upon fishe-dayes, fleeted milke.
1611. Cotgr., Escremé, vncreamed, fleeted, as miik.
