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Glite Dictionary
moonlight flit

moonlight flit

9.9
A secret leaving of a home at night to avoid paying debts
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : huida nocturna
  • The couple planned their moonlight flit carefully to escape their mounting debts.

Examples

  • Doing a moonlight flit, then?

    Threads (1984)

  • After failing to pay rent for three months, he decided to make a moonlight flit to avoid his landlord.

  • When they realized they couldn't afford the bills, they arranged a moonlight flit in the dead of night.

Synonyms

flit
vsmoonlight flit
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A secret leaving of a home to avoid paying debts or being caught

is a sudden night leaving aimed at avoiding debts or other obligations
decampment
vsmoonlight flit
9.9

Secretly leaving a place to avoid being caught

is a sudden night leaving aimed specifically at avoiding debts or obligations

Surface Forms

moonlight flit singular
moonlight flits plural

Morphology

moonlight + flit

The core meaning 'a secret or sudden departure at night' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'moonlight' (night) + 'flit' (a furtive or quick move away). While the pragmatic nuance of avoiding debts/obligations is an extension, a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the basic night-time, secret-departure sense.

Etymology

Moonlight flit may come from the image of people leaving a home at night, when they would flit, meaning move away quietly, by the light of the moon so no one saw them. That's why it means 'a secret or sudden departure', often to 'avoid paying debts'.