fleeting

fleeting
    adj 1: lasting for a markedly brief time; "a fleeting glance";
           "fugitive hours"; "rapid momentaneous association of
           things that meet and pass"; "a momentary glimpse" [syn:
           {fleeting}, {fugitive}, {momentaneous}, {momentary}]
    

fleet \fleet\ (fl[=e]t), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {fleeted}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {fleeting}.] [OE. fleten, fleoten, to swim, AS.
   fle['o]tan to swim, float; akin to D. vlieten to flow, OS.
   fliotan, OHG. fliozzan, G. fliessen, Icel. flj[=o]ta to
   float, flow, Sw. flyta, D. flyde, L. pluere to rain, Gr.
   plei^n to sail, swim, float, Skr. plu to swim, sail.
   [root]84. Cf. {Fleet}, n. & a., {Float}, {Pluvial}, {Flow}.]
   1. To sail; to float. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            And in frail wood on Adrian Gulf doth fleet.
                                                  --Spenser.
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   2. To fly swiftly; to pass over quickly; to hasten; to flit
      as a light substance.
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            All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, . . .
            Dissolved on earth, fleet hither.     --Milton.
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   3. (Naut.) To slip on the whelps or the barrel of a capstan
      or windlass; -- said of a cable or hawser.
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   4. (Naut.) To move or change in position; -- said of persons;
      as, the crew fleeted aft.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
    

Fleeting \Fleet"ing\, a.
   Passing swiftly away; not durable; transient; transitory; as,
   the fleeting hours or moments.

   Syn: Evanescent; ephemeral. See {Transient}.
        [1913 Webster]
    

59 Moby Thesaurus words for "fleeting":
      abrupt, blunt, brief, brittle, brusque, capricious, changeable,
      compendious, corruptible, crusty, curt, deciduous, disappearing,
      dissolving, dying, ephemeral, evanescent, evaporating, fading,
      fickle, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious,
      fugitive, gruff, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant,
      insubstantial, laconic, melting, momentary, mortal, mutable,
      nondurable, nonpermanent, passing, perishable, short,
      short and sweet, short-lived, snippety, snippy, succinct, temporal,
      temporary, terse, transient, transitive, transitory, undurable,
      unenduring, unstable, vanishing, volatile