Moving house-Flitting

We live near Glasgow Our family still use the word " flitting".
A " moonlight flit", was only used when someone did a " runner", without paying their rent.

we always say flitting ,we're in the West of Scotland and its the normal word for moving house.Like Marydoll says a moonlight flit is someone leaving in a hurry without paying their bills ..usually in the dead of night

That's what I remembered. But the online dictionary said it meant a quick move. Thanks for helping. Just goes to show some southerner has written the entry without knowing what's what.

We always said "flitting" in our area of South Yorkshire, and a moonlight flit was moving to avoid paying the rent owed.

Grew up in North West England and the term "doing a moon light flit" was frequently used in the 1950's & 60's.

The term is in use amongst elderly people in Cheshire. It only refers to moving house, not to avoiding debt.

It's not an expression used in the S.E. for a normal move.
"doing a moonlight" I'm familiar with.

Flitting here in SE Scotland too

Like Mapleleaf I grew up in Yorkshire and remember “flitting” in use for moving house. Doesn’t seem to be used now, not heard it for years.

A moonlight flit was a move without anyone knowing in advance to avoid debts, usually rent.

We also used the word 'flitting', common practice when I was young here in Fife. However I think nowadays everyone just says' moving house'.

As a southerner, moving house was moving house, flitting wasn't much used, but when used meant a sudden flight, as in a moonlight flightbut could be for other reasons.

I once had neighbours who did a moonlight flit - they were in debt - and we heard some commotion outside (things being moved, doors being slammed, an engine running), at 3am., and they had loaded all their stuff onto a lorry and cleared off.

I grew up in the north. A moonlight flit was moving owing money. Just moving house was flitting.

Yes "flitting" was the term used for moving house in the West Riding of Yorkshire when I was a lass. Doing a moonlight flit seems to be a term common to all parts of the country and means the same - i.e running away to avoid debts.

I'm in the south but my parents were from the north/Scotland and they used the term flitting. I think southerners use the term moonlight flit for escaping debt.

I also grew up[ in S.Yorkshire, we used the word flitting as well.

"Flit/flitting" probably comes from Old Norse. In Swedish 'flytta' means to move. It can mean move house but it can also mean 'move' in the sense move a thing/person to another location: "Flytta stolen" (= Move the chair), "Flytta på dig" (=Move/shift your position).

Growing up in the North of England, I remember adults talking of flitting ( and yes, a moonlight flit was when you left overnight with rent owing.)
I never heard my own generation use the word though.

I agree. Here in the Scottish Borders moving house is flitting but a moonlight flit is running away.
I had neighbours who did that. They stripped the house, even took the carpets and light bulbs and creditors called on us looking for them, the neighbours not the bulbs..

We did a 'moonlight flit' when I was seven and my mum wanted to get away where my dad couldn't find her. It was a 'three way' council house exchange in Manchester.

Usually when a family did a flit it was either because they'd 'bettered themselves' i.e. bought a house, or because they were a step ahead of the bailiffs.

Southerners have their one meaning if the word, doesn't mean its wrong, the northern meaning could be the wrong one!

My Aberdonian family always used "flitting" for any house move, but since then I've only heard of people throughout England "doing a moonlight flit" - happens a lot on my rather poverty-stricken Rochdale estate!

I was brought up in the North West, with two Cumbrian grandmothers (coincidentally.) Flitting was something my family did rather frequently, following Father's work. We, happily, never had to do a 'Moonlight Flit' which was others agree, is beating the bailiffs and the landlord!

Definitely remember this word from our earlier time in Lancashire, but don't hear it in Devon. A moonlight flit was leaving your house quickly and without paying I think.