FLEETING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fleeting mean? 

• FLEETING (adjective)
  The adjective FLEETING has 1 sense:

1. lasting for a markedly brief time

  Familiarity information: FLEETING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLEETING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lasting for a markedly brief time

Synonyms:

fleeting; fugitive; momentaneous; momentary

Context example:

a momentary glimpse

Similar:

short (primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration)

Derivation:

fleetingness (the property of lasting for a very short time)

 Context examples 

The glow of warmth with which he met Joe had been most fleeting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It’s a big month, and the trends you see starting up here are not fleeting—they will be in place a year.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

What faces are the most distinct to me in the fleeting crowd?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Sometimes, for a fleeting moment, I thought I caught a glance, heard a tone, beheld a form, which announced the realisation of my dream: but I was presently undeserved.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We stepped, as it were, right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a bright full moon, with heavy black, driving clouds, which threw the whole scene into a fleeting diorama of light and shade as they sailed across.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Besides, you know, we can’t hurt Johnson’s soul. It’s only the fleeting form we may demolish.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He would lie by the hour, eager, alert, at Thornton’s feet, looking up into his face, dwelling upon it, studying it, following with keenest interest each fleeting expression, every movement or change of feature.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of the day, was soon in a deep slumber broken only by fleeting visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and the many strange folk whom he had met at the Pied Merlin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)