[f. next vb.]
1. A fluttering; the action or condition of fluttering (whether in a trans. or intr. sense).
1641. Milton, Animadv., 19. Set the grave councels up upon their shelvs again, and string them hard, lest their various, and jangling opinions put their leavs into a flutter.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 102, 27 June, ¶ 10. There is an infinite Variety of Motions to be made use of in the Flutter of a Fan: There is the angry Flutter, the modest Flutter, the timorous Flutter, the confused Flutter, the merry Flutter, and the amorous Flutter.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, iii. Nothing was heard but the drowsy murmur of the breeze among the woods, and its light flutter as it blew freshly into the carriage.
1848. Dickens, Dombey (C. D. ed.), v. 32. No one else leant over her, and whispered soothing words to her, or was near enough to hear the flutter of her beating heart.
1875. Maclaren, Serm., Ser. II. viii. 137–8. What the better are you for believing in Jesus Christ, His Divine nature, His death and glory, when you have no reliance on Him, nor any least flutter of trembling love towards Him?
b. A ‘run,’ a ‘burst,’ colloq.
1857. C. Keene, Let., in G. S. Layard Life, iii. (1892) 62. I had a brief flutter down to the coast of Devon.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, The Cream of Leicestershire, 376. The meet had again been Gaddesby: and the earlier part of the morning had been spent in following up the same fox that, a month before, had given us a first flutter across the country—from Mr. Cheney’s new covert to Ashby Pastures.
2. An agitated condition, a state of tremulous excitement. Esp. in phrases, to be in, fall, put, etc. into flutter.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xvi. 107. No emotions, child! No flutters!
1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, May. She found us out in a few minutes, and made us welcome in a strain of delight and humbleness at receiving us, that put her into a flutter of spirits, from which she never recovered all the evening.
1818. J. W. Croker, in Croker Papers (1884), Sept. She is blistered in the chest, from which she suffers a good deal, but not so much as from the flutter of her nerves, which makes her very miserable.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxi. He immediately partook of his mother’s anxiety and fell into a great flutter.
1887. Catherine Barter, Poor Nellie (1888), 99. No wonder poor Adela’s pulse was all in a flutter; and a young girl’s fluttering pulse tells a soft tale very plainly to a fatherly old tom-cat.
b. A disordered or untidy state.
c. 1825. Mrs. Sherwood, Houlston Tracts, II. xxxi. 9. Put down your trunk in that corner, and let me never see this room in a flutter.
† 3. Ostentatious display, fuss, sensation, show, stir. Esp. in phr. To make a (or their) flutter: to make a noise in the world. Obs.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 30 Aug. I never knew people in my life that make their flutter, that do things so meanly.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 58. They [Atheists] would boast, that they could not be answer’d; and make a mighty flutter and triumph.
c. 1700. Pope, Artemisia, 19.
| So have I seen, in black and white, | |
| A prating thing, a magpie hight, | |
| Majestically stalk; | |
| A stately worthless animal, | |
| That plies the tongue, and wags the tail, | |
| All flutter, pride, and talk. |
1812. Examiner, 12 Oct., 652/2. The fanfarronade and flutter of the favourite Hussars.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. xviii. (1869), 369. Why then all this flutter, fidgetty anxiety, and itch of meddling?
4. slang. An attempt or ‘shy’ at anything; an exciting venture at betting or cards.
1874. Slang Dict., s.v. ‘I’ll have a flutter for it,’ means I’ll have a good try for it.
1880. Payn, Confid. Agent, I. 134. I am not funky of you at any game, and I want a ‘flutter.’
1883. Echo, 26 Feb., 4/2 (Farmer). I have no stable tip, but I fancy the animal named will at any rate afford backers a flutter for their money.
5. attrib. and Comb., as flutter-headed adj.; flutter-pate, a flighty or light-headed person; flutter-wheel (see quot. 1874).
1892. Ld. Lytton, King Poppy, Prol. 247.
| Roaming the realms of Phantasos, he spied | |
| The snowy-vested *flutter-headed flower | |
| That deem’d itself their monarch. |
1894. Beerbohm, A Defence of Cosmetics, in Yellow Bk., I. April, 65. Indeed, indeed, there is charm in every period, and only fools and *flutterpates do not seek reverently for what is charming in their own day.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Flutter-wheel, a peculiar kind of wheel, to a water-mill.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 894/2. Flutter-wheel. A water-wheel of moderate diameter placed at the bottom of a chute so as to receive the impact of the head of water in the chute and penstock.
