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Webster 1913 Edition

Falter

Fal′ter

,
Verb.
T.
To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
[Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.

Fal′ter

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Faltered
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Faltering
.]
[OE.
falteren
,
faltren
, prob. from
fault
. See
Fault
,
Verb.
&
Noun.
]
1.
To hesitate; to speak brokenly or weakly; to stammer;
as, his tongue
falters
.
With
faltering
speech and visage incomposed.
Milton.
2.
To tremble; to totter; to be unsteady.
“He found his legs falter.”
Wiseman.
3.
To hesitate in purpose or action.
Ere her native king
Shall
falter
under foul rebellion’s arms.
Shakespeare
4.
To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; – said of the mind or of thought.
Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance
falters
.
I. Taylor.

Fal′ter

,
Verb.
T.
To utter with hesitation, or in a broken, trembling, or weak manner.
And here he
faltered
forth his last farewell.
Byron.
Mde me most happy,
faltering
“I am thine.”
Tennyson.

Fal′ter

,
Noun.
[See
Falter
,
Verb.
I.
]
Hesitation; trembling; feebleness; an uncertain or broken sound;
as, a slight
falter
in her voice
.
The
falter
of an idle shepherd's pipe.
Lowell.

Webster 1828 Edition

Falter

FAL'TER

,
Verb.
I.
[L. fallo, the primary sense of which is to fall short, or to err, to miss, to deviate.]
1.
To hesitate, fail or break in the utterance of words; to speak with a broken or trembling utterance; to stammer. His tongue falters. He speaks with a faltering tongue. He falters at the question.
2.
To fail, tremble or yield in exertion; not to be firm and steady. His legs falter.
3.
To fail in the regular exercise of the understanding. We observe idiots to falter.

FAL'TER

,
Verb.
T.
To sift. [Not in use.]

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