Dictionary

flittermouse en · NOUN

Pronunciation

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Etymology

From flitter + mouse (compare flickermouse, flindermouse), after Middle Dutch fleddermuys, vledermuys, vlermuys (Modern Dutch vleermuis), from vledderen, vlederen (“to flutter, float, hover”) + muys (“mouse”). Cognate with West Frisian flearmûs (“bat”), Middle Low German vledermūs (“bat”), German Fledermaus (“bat”), Swedish fladdermus (“bat”) and flädermus (“bat”). More at flitter, flutter, flatter, mouse.

Meanings

1. (dialectal) A bat (a flying mammal).
   • They don't bump into folk, blind people don't. They're like flittermice. You never saw two flittermice bump into each other. 1969, Rayner Heppenstall, The Shearers, page 183:
   • Now while they rested, a flittermouse flew forth from the Witchland booths and went widdershins round the wrastling ground and so returned silently whence she came. 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 22:
   • 1894, Philip Stewart Robinson, Birds of the Wave and Woodland, Electronic Edition, unnumbered page, The bats wheel overhead, their soft wings crumpling as they turn their somersaults, but never a voice in the air, save sharp needle-points of sound, as flittermouse calls to flittermouse.
   • I thank thee, gentle flittermouse, for these so pleasant memories. Have you ever caught and examined a flittermouse? 1891, Conway Lloyd Morgan, Animal sketches:

Forms