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)

Verb

(undermin)

To dig underneath (something), to make a passage or for destructive or military purposes; to sap.

* 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 312:

Martin, for instance, had on one occasion undermined a tree sacred to old gods, then stood in the path of its fall, but forced it to fall elsewhere by making the sign of the Cross.

(figuratively) To weaken or work against; to hinder, sabotage.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 19, author=Josh Halliday, work=the Guardian

, title= Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised? , passage=The growing use of social media to spread anger and dissent in the Arab world has been hailed by western governments as one of the chief justifications for a completely unfettered internet. The US is reportedly funding the secret rollout of technology in Iran in an effort to undermine internet censors in the country.}}