Sc. [Later form of QUITTER v.2]
1. intr. To warble, twitter.
1513. [see QUITTER v.2].
c. 1800. Elfer Hill, 24, in R. Jamieson, Pop. Ball. (1806), I. 226. The sma’ fowls in the shaw began To whitter in the dale.
2. To move lightly and briskly; to quiver, flutter, scamper, etc.
1513. [see QUITTER v.2].
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 7. The dows and daws … Out-whirr’d and whitter’t.
1894. Flora A. Steel, Potter’s Thumb, xiii. A ‘whittering’ beast came in its place—‘whitter! whitter!’ under the bed, behind the boxes. That was the worst of a musk-rat: no one could possibly tell where it would ‘whitter’ next.
