fleten

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fleoten, flete, fleetyn, fleete

Etymology

From Old English flēotan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfleːtən/

Verb

fleten

1. To go or change position; to experience movement:
   1. To float; to stay buoyant on the surface of a liquid.
   2. To move or propel oneself in or on the water; to swim.
   3. To move on a vessel or raft across water; to be conveyed over a liquid.
   4. To stream or flow; to move smoothly as a liquid or fluid.
   5. (Late Middle English) To spread or propel throughout the air.
   6. (rare) To drag on the ground (used of clothing)
   7. (rare) To fly; to move across the sky.
2. To wander around; to have no direction or consistency.
3. To be ephemeral, fleeting, or temporary; to lack permanence.
4. (Late Middle English) To remove scum or cream from a fluid.
5. (rare) To have something in great or excessive quantity
6. (rare) To lack restraint in speech; to describe excessively.

Usage notes

Strong forms are mainly found in Early Middle English.

Conjugation

Conjugation of fleten (weak in -ed/-te or strong class 2)

infinitive	(to) fleten, flete
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	flete	fleted, flette, flet
2nd-person singular	fletest	fletedest, flettest, flute1
3rd-person singular	fleteth	fleted, flette, flet
subjunctive singular	flete	fleted2, flette2, flute2
imperative singular		—
plural3	fleten, flete	fleteden, fletede, fletten, flette, fluten, flute
imperative plural	fleteth, flete	—
participles	fletynge, fletende	fleted, floten

¹ Later replaced by the 1st-/3rd-person singular or fletest.
² Later replaced by the indicative.
³ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Related terms

• flete (all ME senses)

Descendants

• English: fleet
• Scots: fleet

References

• “flẹ̄ten, v.(1)).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 October 2018.
• “flẹ̄ten, v.(2)).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 October 2018.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From German flätig +‎ -en, with the German adjective-forming suffix -ig replaced by Serbo-Croatian -en.

Adjective

fleten (Cyrillic spelling флетен)

1. (Kajkavian) quick

   Synonym: brz

Related terms

• fletno

Further reading

• “fleten”, in Rječnik hrvatskoga kajkavskoga književnog jezika [Dictionary of the Croatian Kajkavian literary language] (in Serbo-Croatian), https://kajkavski.hr, 1984–2026

Spanish

Verb

fleten

1. inflection of fletar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative