flittermouse
Americannoun
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flittermice
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of flittermouse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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I am compelled, therefore, to speak in the way of reconciliation on both sides, lest a feud should break out, and it should eventually fare with me as with the flittermouse in the fable.
From Specimens of German Romance Vol. I. The Patricians by Velde, Carl Franz van der
In the light of futurity's favours Fair gratitude burgeons amain, And the flittermouse Love never wavers In truth to the Psyche of gain.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, July 26, 1890 by Various
From out the wood I watched them shine,— The windows of the haunted house, Now ruddy as enchanted wine, Now dark as flittermouse.
From Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes Volume II. by De la Mare, Walter
However, in some parts of the country the bat is still called by its old English name, "the flittermouse," that is, the mouse that flitters, or flutters about.
From The Squirrels and other animals Illustrations of the habits and instincts of many of the smaller British quadrupeds by Waring, George
In at least sixteen dialects a flittermouse means “a bat.”
From English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
In some places bats are called flittermice, but they are more nearly related to moles, shrews, and other insect-eaters than they are to mice.
From The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year by Beebe, William
I can endure flittermice painted blue, but they must wear petticoats—and pretty petticoats too.
From Red Axe by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
Bats look more like mice than they do like birds, and they are sometimes called flittermice.
From The Human Side of Animals by Dixon, Royal
Three bats or flittermice are in the shield of Burninghill and in that of Heyworth of Whethamstede.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
