stutter
/ˈstʌtə
/verb [no object]
1Talk with continued involuntary repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants: the child was stuttering in fright...
- Kayelle continued, stuttering, trying to catch her breath, ‘I didn't know. didn't know what. what.’
- When I began stuttering, he continued, ‘Now that should teach you not to spread lies about how I'm incapable of sleeping in my boxers.’
- Geb and Sahib stuttered in fright and pointed behind her.
Synonyms
stammer, stumble, speak haltingly, falter, speak falteringly, flounder, hesitate, pause, halt;
blunder, splutter
informal fluff one's lines
1.1 [reporting 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...
- I stuttered an ineffective argument as my old pals shame and embarrassment rose to the fore - thus the vicious circle was complete.
- I stuttered a hello back and then glanced down to see if I was wearing a nametag.
- Barnabas stutters a bit, and Harrison sees the doll in his hand.
1.2(Of a machine or gun) produce a series of short, sharp sounds: she flinched as a machine gun stuttered nearby...
- Computer screens glow, fax machines stutter out reams of paper and the filing cabinets which line every wall bulge with thousands of documents.
- The cabbie walked back to his cab, which stood, engine still stuttering, like a big black hesitation.
- 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.
1.3 (often as adjective stuttering) Progress in an irregular way: the stuttering economy...
- ‘Steve has put people in place to do specific jobs and I can't see the progression of the club stuttering,’ he said.
- 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.
- 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.
noun
1A tendency to stutter while speaking: ‘She’s p-perfectly j-justified,’ he said with his intermittent stutter...
- Well mannered and quiet, with a stutter in his speaking voice - but not his singing one - Thompson nonetheless has an air of defiance about him.
- He knew he was ready, knew it was real, knew it was her, and the words came without a stutter or a stammer.
- What a nightmare: being afflicted with a stutter, and having to give an acceptance speech in front of the largest global live audience that a civilian can get.
Synonyms
stammer, speech impediment, speech defect;
hesitancy, faltering
1.1A series of short, sharp sounds produced by a machine or gun: a machine gun shattered the quiet with its explosive stutter...
- If you go forward it goes forward, if you go back and forth, the image and sound stutters in the DJ style.
- Unpleasant like the faint nausea of the initial stutter and sharp turns of a car journey.
- 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.
Derivatives
stutterer
/ noun ...- Possibly stutterers may be shy or hostile because of developmental origins at an oral dependent-incorporative level.
- But I know a number of stutterers now who I feel very sorry for, because I can see how inhibiting it is for them, and how crippling.
- So the inspector went to the back of the class, sat down at the stutterer's desk facing him, put his hand over the boy's hand, and asked the question again.
stutteringly
Origin
Late 16th century (as a verb): frequentative of dialect stut, of Germanic origin; related to German stossen 'strike against'.