[f. FLEET v.1 + -ING2.] That fleets, in senses of the vb.
† 1. Floating; of a fish: Swimming. Obs.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 1447 (Gr.). Se feond ȝespearn fleotende hreaw.
1340–70. Alex. & Dind., 491. Þe fletinge fihs · þat in þe fom lepen.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxi. 106. Amongst the fleeting herbes there is also a certayne herbe which some call Water Lyverworte.
† 2. That moves constantly, shifting, unstable, wandering; hence of a person or his attributes: Changeable, fickle, inconstant, vacillating. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 74. Mid te fleotinde word, to fleoteð þe heorte.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. iii. (Camb. MS.), 6. It is rauyssed only by fleetynge Errour folyly and lythly.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), I. iii. 4. Ryght as the fletyng ayer geuyth place to the flyght of byrdes, or as the flowyng water to swymmyng of fysshes, ryght so was al this erthe passyble to spirites.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 3. Euen these auncient Preachers, must now and then plaie the fooles in the pulpit, to serue the tickle eares of their fletyng audience, or els they are like sometimes to preach to the bare walles.
1592. Greene, Groat’s W. Wit (1617), 15. If I finde thee firme, Lamilia will bee faithfull: if fleeting, she must of necessitie be infortunate.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 240.
| Now from head to foote | |
| I am Marble constant: now the fleeting Moone | |
| No Planet is of mine. |
1649. Milton, Eikon., ii. 17. Of such a variable and fleeting conscience what hold can be tak’n?
1650. Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, I. 424. The Disciples, when gazing on the greatness of the stones, might better have bestowed their wonder, that so firm a fabrick should stand on so fleeting a foundation.
† 3. Flowing; fluid. Fleeting sacrifices: drink offerings. Obs.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 177. Wat is folc bute fletende water.
1388. Wyclif, Exod. xxv. 29. And thou schalt make redi vessels of vynegre, and viols, cenceris, and cuppis of pureste gold, in whiche fletynge sacrifices schulen be offrid.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xxii. (Tollem. MS.). Drynke is a fletynge substaunce nedful to þe fedynge of a beste.
c. 1420. Liber Cure Cocorum (1862), 54. Take ryse and fletande fignade.
1567. Turberv., Epitaphes, &c. (1870), 175.
| So standes the foole by fleeting floud, | |
| and looketh for a turne; | |
| But river runnes and still will run, | |
| and never shape returne. |
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 594.
| The slipp’ry God will … | |
| In fleeting Streams attempt to slide away. |
4. Passing swiftly by. Chiefly of life or time.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet xcvii.
| How like a Winter hath my absence beene | |
| From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting yeare? | |
| What freezings haue I felt, what darke daies seene? | |
| What old Decembers barenesse euery where? |
a. 1704. T. Brown, Persius’ Sat., i. Wks. 1730, I. 53.
| F. Stay but a while, till reverend age comes on, | |
| (Thy fleeting years of youth will soon be gone). |
1811. W. R. Spencer, Poems, 193, ‘Parting Song.’
| ’Tis pain, ’tis pain to part | |
| For e’en one fleeting night, | |
| But music’s matchless art | |
| Can turn it to delight. |
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. viii. 169. ‘The Prayer of Moses the man of God’ which contrasts the fleeting generations of man with the mountains at whose feet they wandered, and the eternity of Him who existed ‘before ever those mountains were brought forth,’ has become the funeral hymn of the world, and is evidently intended to be treated as the funeral hymn of the Prophet himself.
5. Passing or gliding swiftly away.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 722.
| She said, and from his Eyes the fleeting Fair | |
| Retir’d like subtle Smoke dissolv’d in Air. |
a. 1704. T. Brown, On the Beauties, Wks. 1730, I. 44.
| Scarcely my breast my fleeting soul retains, | |
| And gusts of pleasure hurry thro’ my veins. |
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xvii. (1824), 619. He followed their fleeting figures, as they proceeded on their work of horror.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 3. To catch the fleeting soul of the triumphant martyr, and carry it at once into a paradise of eternal blessedness and peace!
6. Existing for a brief period; not permanent or enduring; transitory, passing, fading.
1563. R. Googe, Epit. N. Grimaold, Eglogs, etc. (Arb.), 73.
| Beholde this fle- | |
| tyng world how al things fade | |
| Howe euery thyng | |
| doth passe and weare awaye. |
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 741.
| O fleeting joyes | |
| Of Paradise, deare bought with lasting woes! |
1771. Gray, Let., 24 May, Poems (1775), 395. I have indeed a short one [journal] written by the companion of my travels, that serves to recal and fix the fleeting images of these things.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 30, Philebus, Introduction. To elevate pleasure the most fleeting of all things into a general idea seems to them a contradiction.
Hence Fleetingly adv., Fleetingness.
1709. Berkeley, Th. Vision, § 156. The perpetual mutability and fleetingness of those immediate objects of sight, render them incapable of being managed after the manner of geometrical figures.
1842. Manning, Serm. Faithf. Departed (1848), I. 309. Their poets were wont to bewail the fleetingness of life, and the unknown condition of the dead.
1883. M. K. Macmillan, Let., 23 Oct. (1893), 52. Not only vast schemes of socialism, but huge Wagnerian nebulæ, have been seething in my brain. I have read, fleetingly, a very considerable section of his prose writings.
