Obs. exc. dial. Also 7 baulter, 8–9 dial. bauter. [prob. from ON.; cf. Da. baltre, boltre to wallow, welter, tumble. See also BOULTER. The connection between senses 1 and 2 and the others is not clear, but it may be either through the notion of tumbling (the hair), or of weltering.]
† 1. intr. To tumble about, to dance clumsily.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 103. Þay ben boþe blynde & balterande cruppelez. Ibid., C. 459. Blyþe of his wodbynde he balteres þer vnde[r].
c. 1440. Morte Arth. (Roxb.), 66. He [the bear] baltyrde, he bleryde, He braundyschte thereafter.
a. 1500. Colkelbie Sow, I. 302 (Jam.). Sum trottit … Sum balterit.
2. trans. (See quot.) dial.
1873. Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bauter, to tread in a clownish manner, as an ox does the grass.
3. trans. To tangle, ‘mat’ (the hair).
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 216. To baulter one’s hair, complicare crines.
1879. Shropsh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Bautered, tangled, unkempt; said of hair.
4. trans. To clot or clog with anything sticky.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXIX. ii. Filthy excrements hanging to sheeps tailes … baltered together into round pils or bals. [See BALTER sb.]
5. intr. (for refl.) To form tangled knots or clots, to stick together by coagulation.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XII. xvii. It [a goat’s beard] baltereth and cluttereth into knots and balls.
