1Talk with continued involuntary repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants.

1. 1.1reporting verb Say something with difficulty, repeating the initial consonants of words.
   with object he shyly stuttered out an invitation to the cinema

   with direct speech ‘W-what's happened?’ she stuttered

   Example sentencesExamples

   • ‘Fight,’ he stuttered out and gazed into her dark eyes.
   • ‘I, I… I’ I stuttered out as Kage's arm pressed harder against my windpipe.
   • It was obvious he was lying, but he stuttered out, ‘, uh, haven't seen her since we broke up.’
   • I stuttered a hello back and then glanced down to see if I was wearing a nametag.
   • I stuttered an ineffective argument as my old pals shame and embarrassment rose to the fore - thus the vicious circle was complete.
   • Stunned, Sara stuttered a few times before saying, ‘What are you doing here?’
   • ‘N-no,’ Stasia stuttered out, before fixing him with a glare.
   • she stuttered a bit, ‘please say yes’ Willie said.
   • ‘It was… Greg,’ Shane stuttered out as a tear slipped down his cheek.
   • All that matters is that's the only thing that can explain any of this,’ she stuttered out.
   • ‘This… this… girl ’, stuttered the older guy, ‘Is being totally out of line’.
   • She stutters a few words but soon gets whisked away by some big-shouldered, thunder-browed lawyers.
   • Swallowing hard, trying to remove the lump that casually formed in my dry throat, I stuttered out, ‘Err… hi Seth, how's it going?’
   • In a cracked voice, he stuttered the words, ‘I'm sorry.’
   • When he finally caught his breath, he stuttered out, ‘Hahaha!’
   • My lips parted in my confusion, and I stuttered a bit, embarrassingly, in my need to comprehend exactly what it was he was saying, ‘W-what?’
   • He stuttered a bit before looking up to me for help.
   • Barnabas stutters a bit, and Harrison sees the doll in his hand.
   • ‘I think you've got the wrong people,’ Hisei stuttered out nervously, unable to believe she was talking back to these things.
   • ‘I - I, I,’ I stuttered out pathetically, being miraculously cut off by a doctor who just exited the emergency room.
2. 1.2 (of a machine or gun) produce a series of short, sharp sounds.
   she flinched as a machine gun stuttered nearby

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The cabbie walked back to his cab, which stood, engine still stuttering, like a big black hesitation.
   • Computer screens glow, fax machines stutter out reams of paper and the filing cabinets which line every wall bulge with thousands of documents.
   • Picked-up engine that's been stuttering and stalling
   • Particularly annoying among the record's contrivances is its frivolous use of drum machines, which skip and stutter when the songs call for simple beats.
   • The moment the Dura's twin engines stuttered and vibrated into life in a cacophony of backfiring and oily blue smoke, Kara's resolve suddenly deserted her.
3. 1.3often as adjective stuttering Progress in an irregular way.
   the stuttering economy

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The stuttering of the Scottish economy is having one unexpected and beneficial side-effect: our politicians are starting to have a mature debate about the persistently low levels of Scottish economic growth.
   • In his speech, Mr Balls contrasted the recovery taking place in Britain and the US with the stuttering economies of the eurozone and Japan.
   • Eager to apply his business acumen to the stuttering national economy, Blocher had his eye on the finance ministry, but this went instead to a conservative Free Democrat.
   • He gave the Cabinet a deeply gloomy prognosis about the effects of prolonged conflict on an already stuttering world economy.
   • Holland flirted with disaster last night though, in the end, the anxiety reared not out on the pitch but in the stands as news was drip-fed through of Germany's stuttering progress in Lisbon.
   • Until that point all the negotiations had taken place in Scotland between the unions and ScotRail, but in London bosses on both sides had tired of the stuttering progress and public blunders being made by their Scottish satellites.
   • The markets are left asking whether the stuttering US economy is playing any part in the decision.
   • Wall Street believes that the lack of vigorous job creation from the stuttering US economy may persuade the Federal Reserve Board to postpone an expected increase in American interest rates next month.
   • With the economy still stuttering, if you haven't built an emergency fund, now is the time to start socking away money into a bank account or another easily accessible investment.
   • There's still - the economy is still just stuttering along.
   • The robotic, stuttering moves between passes and fast breaks counters any ground the player animations gain, and seems to kill part of the frame rate at times in the process.
   • The admission of the Brisbane Bears and the West Coast Eagles into the Victorial Football League was the most significant step in the stuttering progress towards a national competition.
   • ‘Steve has put people in place to do specific jobs and I can't see the progression of the club stuttering,’ he said.
   • As it turned out, their stuttering progress entitled them to an easier second round, from which they went on to win the thing.

1A tendency to stutter while speaking.

1. 1.1 A series of short, sharp sounds produced by a machine or gun.
   a machine gun shattered the quiet with its explosive stutter

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The video image is sharp, though there is an occasional image stutter on hard cuts.
   • Unpleasant like the faint nausea of the initial stutter and sharp turns of a car journey.
   • With seven tracks clocking in at over an hour, expect some nice, long, drawn-out sound sketches, each slowly building to a sweeping chorus of digital clicks and stutters.
   • The title track and ‘Palermo’ present electronic soundscapes full of blips and stutters, the silver sound of spoons and a humming that could be the sound of muted, slightly exhausted wisdom.
   • Yet the data clearly suggest that the job machine may have developed a long-term stutter for other reasons.
   • If you go forward it goes forward, if you go back and forth, the image and sound stutters in the DJ style.
   • Asking it to keep track of six or seven other players and send out constant messages and update your screen 30 times a second with fabulous 3D graphics is enough to make almost any machine stutter.
   • When I concentrated, I could hear the explosions in the distance, supplemented every once in a while by the stutter of a machinegun or the crack of a rifle.