Wiktionary

fleeting

English

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WOTD – 3 December 2012, 3 December 2014

Etymology

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From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈfliːtɪŋ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːtɪŋ

Adjective

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fleeting (comparative more fleeting, superlative most fleeting)

  1. Passing quickly; of short duration.
    Synonyms: transient, ephemeral, fugacious; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
    • 1931, Martha Kinross, “The Screen — From This Side”, in The Fortnightly, volume 130, page 511:
      Architecture, sculpture, painting are static arts. Even in literature "our flying minds," as George Meredith says, cannot contain protracted description. It is so; for from sequences of words they must assemble all the details in one simultaneous impression. But moments of fleeting beauty too transient to be caught by any means less swift than light itself are registered on the screen.
    • 1953 December, Henry Maxwell, “The Folkestone Harbour Branch: Some Evocations”, in Railway Magazine, page 809:
      As they passed, accelerating, on to the bridge and felt the first bite of the incline beyond, one had a fleeting glimpse of driver and fireman, illumined as by the fires of hell, the one tugging at the regulator handle, the other shovelling for dear life.
    • 2003, Gabrielle Walker, Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It, Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, pages 34–35:
      During the fleeting summer months of his field season, when the outer vestiges of winter melted briefly, there were ponds and pools and lakes of water everywhere.
    • 2008, Barbara L. Bellman, Susan Goldstein, Flirting After Fifty: Lessons for Grown-Up Women on How to Find Love Again, iUniverse, published 2008, →ISBN, page 12:
      For starters, we see examples all the time of some middle-aged men trying to hang onto their own fleeting youth by sporting younger women on their arms.
    • 2010, Leslie Ludy, The Lost Art of True Beauty: The Set-Apart Girl's Guide to Feminine Grace, Harvest House Publishers, published 2010, →ISBN, page 5:
      And I am inspired afresh to pursue the stunning beauty of Christ rather than the fleeting beauty of this world.

Collocations

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Often used with nouns indicating mental, perceptual, or emotional states

"a fleeting thought", "a fleeting glimpse" "a fleeting impression", "a fleeting hope", or to indicate that the shortness of duration might be regretted : "fleeting beauty", "fleeting youth"

Translations

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Noun

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fleeting (uncountable)

  1. (US, rail transport) An automatic operation mode of an absolute signal that reserves a route for several trains following one another, without the need for dispatcher to re-set the route for each train.

Translations

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Translations

Verb

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fleeting

  1. present participle and gerund of fleet
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  NODES
Note 1