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Falter vs Flutter - What's the difference?

falter | flutter |

As nouns the difference between falter and flutter

is that falter is butterfly while flutter is the act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion.

As a verb flutter is

(lb) to flap or wave quickly but irregularly.

falter

English

Noun

(-)
  • unsteadiness.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To waver or be unsteady.
  • * Wiseman
    • He found his legs falter .
  • (ambitransitive) To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.
  • * Byron
    • And here he faltered forth his last farewell.
  • * Milton
    • With faltering speech and visage incomposed.
  • To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.
  • * I. Taylor
    • Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance falters .
  • To stumble.
  • (figuratively) To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).
  • *
    • And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter .
  • To hesitate in purpose or action.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Ere her native king / Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.
  • To cleanse or sift, as barley.
    • (Halliwell)

    References

    flutter

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To flap or wave quickly but irregularly.
  • :
  • *
  • *: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.
  • (lb) Of a winged animal: to flap the wings without flying; to fly with a light flapping of the wings.
  • *1900 , , (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
  • *:Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.
  • (lb) To cause something to flap.
  • :
  • (lb) 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.

    • Noun

    (wikipedia flutter) (en noun)
  • The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion.
    • the flutter of a fan
  • * Milnes
    • the chirp and flutter of some single bird
  • A state of agitation.
    • (Alexander Pope)
  • * (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.
  • An abnormal rapid pulsation of the heart.
  • (British) A small bet or risky investment.
  • * 1915 : , 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?
  • The rapid variation of signal parameters, such as amplitude, phase, and frequency.

    • Derived terms

    * flutter in the dovecote * flutterby