fluster
/ˈflʌstə
/verb [with object] (often as adjective flustered)
Make (someone) agitated or confused: Rosamund seemed rather flustered this morning...
- The prince was rather flustered, his mind swirling as he tried to decide who would be his bride.
- When I go into my bank nowadays, I am flustered by the range of activities and services being discreetly pushed at me.
- I was flustered - having just come off an airplane - and I went to the powder room.
Synonyms
unsettle, make nervous, unnerve, agitate, ruffle, upset, bother, put on edge, discompose, disquiet, disturb, worry, alarm, panic, perturb, disconcert, confuse, throw off balance, confound, nonplus
informal hassle, rattle, faze, discombobulate, put into a flap, throw into a tizz
British informal send into a spin
noun [in singular]
An agitated or confused state: the main thing is not to get all in a fluster...
- Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
- So, as iconic as Marilyn Monroe and Madonna may be, York men are more likely to get themselves into a fluster over Angelina Jolie and Catherine Zeta Jones.
- The hurry and scurry of airports, the deceits and disputes of hotels, the fluster of trains and taxis - he was beyond it all.
Synonyms
state of agitation, state of anxiety, nervous state, flutter, panic, frenzy, fever, fret, upset, turmoil, commotion
informal dither, flap, tizz, tizzy, tiz-woz, twitter, state, sweat, stew
North American informal twit
Derivatives
flusteredness
Origin
Early 17th century (in the sense 'make slightly drunk'): perhaps of Scandinavian origin and related to Icelandic flaustra 'hurry, bustle'.
The early sense was ‘make slightly drunk’. It is perhaps of Scandinavian origin and related to Icelandic flaustra ‘hurry, bustle’.