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Webster 1913 Edition

Flutter

Flut′ter

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To vibrate or move quickly;
as, a bird
flutters
its wings
.
2.
To drive in disorder; to throw into confusion.
Like an eagle in a dovecote, I
Fluttered
your Volscians in Corioli.
Shakespeare

Flut′ter

,
Noun.
1.
The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion; vibration;
as, the
flutter
of a fan
.
The chirp and
flutter
of some single bird
Milnes. .
2.
Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind; confusion; disorder.
Pope.
Flutter wheel
,
a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; – so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.

Webster 1828 Edition

Flutter

FLUT'TER

, v.i.
1.
To move or flap the wings rapidly, without flying, or with short flights; to hover.
As an eagle stirreth up her next, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings - Deut. 32.
2.
To move about briskly, irregularly or with great bustle and show, without consequence.
No rag, no scrap of all the beau or wit, that once so fluttered, and that once so writ.
3.
To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as a fluttering fan; a fluttering sail.
4.
To be in agitation; to move irregularly; to fluctuate; to be in uncertainty.
How long we fluttered on the wings of doubtful success.
His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering.

FLUT'TER

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To drive in disorder. [Little used.]
2.
To hurry the mind; to agitate.
3.
To disorder; to throw into confusion.

FLUT'TER

,
Noun.
1.
Quick and irregular motion; vibration; undulation; as the flutter of a fan.
2.
Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind.
3.
Confusion; disorder; irregularity in position.

Definition 2024

flutter

flutter

English

Verb

flutter ‎(third-person singular simple present flutters, present participle fluttering, simple past and past participle fluttered)

  1. (intransitive) To flap or wave quickly but irregularly.
    flags fluttering in the wind‎
    • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter III”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
      Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth […].
  2. (intransitive, of a winged animal) To flap the wings without flying; to fly with a light flapping of the wings.
  3. (transitive) To cause something to flap.
    A bird flutters its wings.‎
  4. (transitive) To drive into disorder; to throw into confusion.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      Like an eagle in a dovecote, I / Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli.

Translations

Noun

flutter ‎(plural flutters)

  1. The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion.
    the flutter of a fan
    • Milnes
      the chirp and flutter of some single bird
  2. A state of agitation.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)
    • Henry James
      Their visitor was an issue - at least to the imagination, and they arrived finally, under provocation, at intensities of flutter in which they felt themselves so compromised by his hoverings that they could only consider with relief the fact of nobody's knowing.
  3. An abnormal rapid pulsation of the heart.
  4. (Britain) A small bet or risky investment.
    • 1915: W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, Ch. 93
      "Oh, by the way, I heard of a rather good thing today, New Kleinfonteins; it's a gold mine in Rhodesia. If you'd like to have a flutter you might make a bit."
    • So with his victory odds currently at 14/1 or 3/1 for the podium, he's still most certainly well worth a flutter... - Gray Matter: How will Schu do?
  5. (audio, electronics) The rapid variation of signal parameters, such as amplitude, phase, and frequency.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology

From Middle English floteren, from Old English floterian, flotorian ‎(“to float about, flutter”). Cognate with Low German fluttern, fluddern ‎(“to flutter”), Dutch fladderen; also Albanian flutur ‎(“butterfly”). More at float.

Pronunciation

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