[f. FLIT v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FLIT, in various senses.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2015 (Cott.).
| Sua lang wit flitting he þam sloght, | |
| þat wine treis he þam wroght. |
1529. More, A Dialoge of Comfort against Tribulacion, II. Wks. 1177/2. Though the sufferer woulde be lothe to fall in, yet wyll he rather abyde it and suffer it, than by the flitting from it, fall in ye dyspleasure of God, or leaue gods pleasure vnprocured.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, 1. (1723), 46. They were not left by the Sea’s continual flitting and shifting its Chanel.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, II. 77. Rural Evening.
| Or on the threshold of some cottage sat | |
| To watch the flittings of the shrieking bat, | |
| Who, seemly pleas’d to mock our treacherous view, | |
| Would even swoop and touch us as he flew. |
2. esp. The action of removing from one abode to another; a removal. Now chiefly north. and Sc. Moonlight flitting: removal by moonlight, i.e., by night or by stealth.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10781.
| Forr Galileo bitacneþþ uss | |
| Flittinng onn Ennglissh spæche. |
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12518 (Cott.).
| Siþen þar noght lang þai bade, | |
| Bot to bethleem þair flitting made. |
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., 21. The people returned from Chaldea to Iury and built again the citee of Ierusalem and that famous Temple therein, as king Cyrus gaue leaue, seuenty yeeres after their flitting.
1721. J. Kelly, Scot. Prov., 145. He has taken a Moon light flitting.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., s.v. Flit, Two flittings are as bad as one fire.
1804. Scott, Lett. to Ellis, 1 Aug., in Lockhart. I had to superintend a removal, or what we call a flitting, which, of all bores under the cope of Heaven, is bore the most tremendous.
b. concr. The goods, furniture, etc., removed from one place to another at ‘a flitting.’ Hence, Baggage, stores.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3919 (Cott.).
| And þai bl night þam stal a way, | |
| Wijf and barn, wit flitting hale. |
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxxviii. 50.
| Ðe Schip-men sone in the mornyng | |
| Twrsyt on twa Hors þare flyttyng. |
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, I. 396. All this forsuth sall in our flytting ga.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., ccl. (1863), II. 158. Those who would take the world and all their flitting on their back, and run away from Christ, shall fall by the way, and leave their burden behind them, and be taken captive themselves.
1823. J. Wilson, Trials Marg. Lyndsay, ix. 68. ‘Aye, aye, here’s the flitting, I’se warrant, frae Braehead.’
† 3. Sustenance, maintenance. Cf. FLIT v. 9.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 22–3. I pine of prisun þer ha þes iput in, ich hire fluttunge fond ant fleschliche fode.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 27. Me beheoueð his help to fluttunge & to fode.
