flutter
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈflʌtə/
ipa: /ˈflʌtɚ/
ipa: [-ɾɚ]
rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)
Forms: form: flutters
form: fluttering
form: fluttered
form: fluttered
Etymology: From Middle English floteren, from Old English floterian, flotorian (“to float about, flutter”), from Proto-Germanic *flutrōną, frequentative of Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”), equivalent to float + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with West Frisian flodderje (“to flutter, beat”), Dutch flodderen (“to flutter, wave”), Low German fluttern, fluddern (“to flutter”), German flittern (“to sparkle, glitter”). More at float.
Senses: examples: text: flags fluttering in the wind
text: 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 and heaping kindling on the coals, [...]
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Under the Ashes”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 112:
glosses: To flap or wave quickly but irregularly.
examples: text: Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.
ref: 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Council with the Munchkins”, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC, page 20:
glosses: Of a winged animal: to flap the wings without flying; to fly with a light flapping of the wings.
topics: aerodynamics
aerospace
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To undergo divergent oscillations (potentially to the point of causing structural failure) due to a positive feedback loop between elastic deformation and aerodynamic forces.
examples: text: A bird flutters its wings.
glosses: To cause something to flap.
examples: text: If you haue vvrit your Annales true, 'tis there, / That like an Eagle in a Doue-cote, I / Flatter'd^([sic – meaning Flutter'd]) your Volcians in Corioles.
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 30:
text: There was a clearness of expression in this, and a downright surrender of himself, which so flattered her and so fluttered her that she was almost reduced to the giving of herself up because she could not reply to such an appeal in language less courteous than that of agreement
ref: 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “The Honourable Mr. Glacock”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 104:
glosses: To drive into disorder; to throw into confusion.
examples: text: It was fluttering with nervousness like a human heart. He was all in a sweat with fear, and—do you know, I don't believe the rascal is a Robot at all any longer.
ref: c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act II, page 96:
glosses: To be in a state of agitation or uncertainty.
glosses: To be frivolous.
examples: text: This was the first time that Nosenko had been subjected to a lie detector — or what the CIA called fluttering. The Soviet Union did not use such devices for interrogation.
ref: 1978, Edward Jay Epstein, Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald, page 38:
text: "Anyway, she cracked and we fluttered her and—" / "Fluttered her?" / "Sorry, gave her a polygraph, a lie detector test. And she passed, more or less, […]
ref: 2002, Paul Eddy, Flint’s Law, page 90:
topics: espionage
government
military
politics
war
glosses: To subject to a lie detector test.
Derived terms: aflutter
beflutter
flutteration
flutterer
fluttering elm
flutterment
flutter the dovecot
flutter-tongue
forflutter
unflutterable