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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
fleet \fleet\ (fl[=e]t), verb (used without an object) [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}, noun & a., {Float}, {Pluvial}, {Flow}.]
1. To sail; to float. [Obs.]
And in frail wood on Adrian Gulf doth fleet. --Spenser.
2. To fly swiftly; to pass over quickly; to hasten; to flit as a light substance.
All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, . . . Dissolved on earth, fleet hither. --Milton.
3. (Naut.) To slip on the whelps or the barrel of a capstan or windlass; -- said of a cable or hawser.
4. (Naut.) To move or change in position; -- said of persons; as, the crew fleeted aft. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Fleeting \Fleet"ing\, adjective Passing swiftly away; not durable; transient; transitory; as, the fleeting hours or moments.
Syn: Evanescent; ephemeral. See {Transient}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
fleeting
adjective: lasting for a markedly brief time; "a fleeting glance"; "fugitive hours"; "rapid momentaneous association of things that meet and pass"; "a momentary glimpse" [syn: {fugitive}, {momentaneous}, {momentary}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
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