flut⋅ter
[fluht-er] 
ər
| 1. | to wave, flap, or toss about: Banners fluttered in the breeze. |
| 2. | to flap the wings rapidly; fly with flapping movements. |
| 3. | to move in quick, irregular motions; vibrate. |
| 4. | to beat rapidly, as the heart. |
| 5. | to be tremulous or agitated. |
| 6. | to go with irregular motions or aimless course: to flutter back and forth. |
| 7. | to cause to flutter; vibrate; agitate. |
| 8. | to throw into nervous or tremulous excitement; cause mental agitation; confuse. |
| 9. | a fluttering movement: He made little nervous flutters with his hands. |
| 10. | a state of nervous excitement or mental agitation: a flutter of anticipation. |
| 11. | flutter kick. |
| 12. | Audio. a variation in pitch resulting from rapid fluctuations in the speed of a recording. Compare wow 2 (def. 1). |
| 13. | Chiefly British. a small wager or speculative investment. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| flut·ter (flŭt'ər) v. flut·tered, flut·ter·ing, flut·ters v. intr.
To cause to flutter: "fluttering her bristly black lashes as swiftly as butterflies' wings" (Margaret Mitchell). n.
[Middle English floteren, from Old English floterian; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.] flut'ter·er n., flut'ter·y adj. |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Flutter
Flut"ter\, v. t. 1. To vibrate or move quickly; as, a bird flutters its wings. 2. To drive in disorder; to throw into confusion. Like an eagle in a dovecote, I Fluttered your Volscians in Corioli. --Shak.Flutter
Flut"ter\, n. 1. The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion; vibration; as, the flutter of a fan. The chirp and flutter of some single bird --Milnes. . 2. Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind; confusion; disorder. --Pope. Flutter wheel, a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; -- so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.Cite This Source
flutter
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Main Entry: flut·ter
Pronunciation: 'fl&t-&r
Function: noun
: an abnormal rapid spasmodic and usually rhythmic motion or contraction of a bodypart
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flutter flut·ter (flŭt'ər)
n.
Abnormally rapid pulsation, especially of the atria or ventricles of the heart.
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flutter
in sound reproduction, waver in a reproduced tone or group of tones that is caused by irregularities in turntable or tape drive speed during recording, duplication, or reproduction. Low-frequency irregularities (as one per revolution of a turntable, referred to as "once arounds") cause wow and are recognized aurally as fluctuations in pitch. Irregularities that occur at higher frequencies are called flutter and cause a roughening of the tone: a piano sounds like a harp, and voices waver with small, rapid variations above and below proper pitch. Included among the causes of flutter and wow in disks are high spots in drive rollers and an off-centre hole in the disk. In tape and film reproducers, characteristic causes include nonuniform tension in take-up and payoff reels and mechanical distortion of the tape. Low-frequency background noise, either recorded on disk or tape from the recording mechanism or added to the reproduced tone from the reproducing mechanism, is known as rumble and is usually the result of vibration of the drive mechanism
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