Forms: 5 faltir, 6 (in Fisher flalter, floghter), folter, 6–9 faulter, (7 foulter), 7 felter, 4– falter. [Of obscure etymology.
The current view, which connects the word with fault, is untenable, on the ground that falter has always been written with the l, and is so pronounced in the dialects in which it occurs, whereas in fault the l is an etymologizing insertion, which rarely occurs in spelling before 16th c., and was not pronounced, even by educated speakers, till much later. (But it is not unlikely that association with fault may have colored the recent use of the word.) It seems possible that sense 1, ‘to stumble,’ may have been developed from the sense ‘to be entangled’ (FALTER v.2). On the other hand it is noteworthy that ME. falde-n, FOLD v. is used of the limbs and the tongue in the sense ‘to give way, fail, falter’; perh. falter may be a frequentative of fald-en, formed irregularly through the influence of approximately synonymous vbs. like balter, totter, welter.]
1. Of a person or his steps; also of a horse: To stumble, stagger; to walk with an unsteady gait.
c. 1340. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, 430.
| Nawþer faltered ne fel þe freke neuer þe helder, | |
| Bot styþly he start forth vposn styf schonkes. |
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), III. 280. In feyntnes I falter.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., II. vii. (1634), 159. Hee beginneth … to shake and folter.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 87. Which [mare] now suddenly faultring under him.
1639. T. de Gray, Compl. Horsem., 30. If you doe perceive him to felter with any of his feet.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 537.
| Led them, however faltering, faint, and slow, | |
| From what they knew, to what they wished to know. |
1795. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 119. I have laid up my Rosinante in his stall, before his unfitness for the road shall expose him faultering to the world.
1821. Byron, Sardanapalus, V. i.
| The dispirited troops | |
| Who had seen you fall, and falter’d back. |
1878. A Masque of Poets, 35, Youthful Love.
| Thou guidest steps that falter on alone, | |
| Through darkened ways. |
b. Of the limbs: To give way, totter.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 674.
| O messager, fulfild of dronkenesse, | |
| Strong is thy breth, thy lymes faltren ay. |
1447. Bokenham, Lyvys of Seyntys (Roxb.), 179. Hys leggys to faltryn gunne sodeynly.
1531. Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, I. xvii. Where the water hath vnneth come to his [the horse’s] bealy, his legges hath foltred, wherby many a good and propre man hath perished.
1672. Wiseman, Wounds, I. ix. 120. He felt his legs faulter.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, i. (1826), 4. In descending the last steps … the foot of the elder lady faltered.
c. Of the tongue: To fail to articulate distinctly; to speak unsteadily (see 2).
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel., xlviii. (1539), 93 a. His eye stringes began to breke, and his tonge faultred, and his handes shoke.
a. 1535. Fisher, Wks. (1876), I. 356. Thy fight is darkened, thy hearying is dulled, thy tongue flaltereth in thy mouth, and corruption issueth out of euery parte of thée.
1671. R. Bohun, Disc. Wind, 148. Wee find the tongue more apt to falter (though somewhat in a different manner) whensoever it is overmuch bedew’d with strong and vaporous liquors.
2. To stumble in one’s speech; to speak hesitatingly or incoherently; to stammer. Of the voice, speech, etc.: To come forth incoherently.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 148. Faltryn yn þe tunge, cespito, vel lingua cespitare.
1530. Palsgr., 544/1. I falter in my speakyng, as one dothe that is dronken. Je baboye.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., III. (1593), 63.
| As though she had the Palsey had hir feeble limmes did shake, | |
| And eke she foltred in the mouth as often as she spake. |
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iii. Wks. 1856, I. 124. Pie. Fore Heaven, her speach falters; look, she swoons.
1672. Marvell, The Rehearsal Transprosed, I. 114. He cuts, indeed, and faulters in this discourse, which is no good sign, porswading men that they may and ought to practise against their consciences, where the commands of the magistrate intervene.
1768. H. Walpole, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III., 92. How came Perkin by so accurate a knowledge of the English court, that he did not faulter, nor could be detected in his tale?
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, vi. The words of welcome faltered on his lips, his limbs trembled, and a ghastly paleness overspread his countenance.
1804. J. Grahame, The Sabbath, 687.
| If some shepherd boy | |
| Attempt the strain, his voice soon faltering stops; | |
| He feels his country now a foreign land. |
1821. Mrs. Hemans, Dartmoor, 288.
| When holy strains, from life’s pure fount which sprung, | |
| Breathed with deep reverence, falter on its tongue. |
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 301.
| But even in the middle of his song | |
| He falter’d, and his hand fell from the harp. |
b. trans.; with quoted words as obj.
1842. Tennyson, The Gardener’s Daughter, 230.
| And in that time and place she answer’d me, | |
| And in the compass of three little words, | |
| More musical than ever came in one, | |
| The silver fragments of a broken voice, | |
| Made me most happy, faltering, ‘I am thine.’ |
1884. D. Pae, Eustace, 69. ‘Why would you have Ralph discharged?’ she faltered.
c. To falter forth or out: to utter hesitatingly or with difficulty; to stammer forth. Also (poet.), To breathe out (the soul) by gasps.
1762. Gentl. Mag., 73. I faultered out my acknowledgements.
1813. Bryon, Corsair, I. i. While gasp by gasp he falters forth his soul.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 532. She [Queen Mary] observed that Tenison had been long standing at her bedside, and, with that sweet courtesy which was habitual to her, faltered out her commands that he would sit down, and repeated them till he obeyed.
1868. Milman, Annals of S. Paul’s Cathedral, 305. The Dean faltered out that he meant no harm.
3. To waver, lose steadfastness; to flinch, hesitate in action from lack of courage or resolution. Also of courage, hopes, resolve: To give way, flag.
1521. Fisher, Wks. (1876), I. 313. That we floghter not in the catholike doctryne of our mother holy chirche.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 128. The hier they flie, the sooner they falter and faill.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. II. All other principles are loose and slippery, will soon be shaken and faulter.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 2. If any Man faultred in the Journey over Land he must expect to be shot to death.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), II. 452. It made them faulter and hesitate more in maintaining their principles.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., I. xii. His hopes … began to falter.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. v. 168. A part of the army faultered considerably; nor did all the officers meet the danger with perfect composure.
1832. I. Taylor, Saturday Evening, 190. Here indeed the power of distinct conception of space and distance falters.
1859. Tennyson, Enid 1361.
| Nor let her true hand falter, nor blue eye | |
| Moisten, till she had lighted on his wound. |
1872. Miss Braddon, To Bitter End, I. xvii. 291. The girl’s spirits did not falter.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 4. 77. The citizens themselves faltered as William, passing by their walls, gave Southwark to the flames.
† b. To fail in strength, collapse. Obs.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 18. Until the patient in a close room faulters and sinks.
[1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Gloss. Faltery, to show signs of old age; to break up in constitution.]
c. transf. Of inanimate things: To move as if irresolutely or hesitatingly; to tremble, quiver. Also of a breeze: To flag.
The later examples are all from U.S. writers; to an English reader the use in the quot. from Irving sounds incorrect, that in the two others justifiable though unusual.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 152. Trade Wind blows … within 60 or 70 Leagues of the Mexican Shore, where they say it sometimes falters, but oftner reaches to within 30 Leagues of the Shore.
1810. [see FALTERING ppl. a.].
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, II. 240. He … began to nod, and his staff to falter in his hand.
1848. Lowell, An Indian-Summer Reverie, i.
| What visionary tints the year puts on, | |
| When falling leaves falter through motionless air | |
| Or numbly cling and shiver to be gone! |
1874. Motley, Barneveld, II. xvii. 227. The ancient Rhine as it falters languidly to the sea.
d. dial. Of a crop: To fail.
1863. Dorset Gloss., s.v. ‘I be a-feärd the teäties will falter.’
Hence Faltered ppl. a., Faltering vbl. sb.
1706. Earl Belhaven, Sp. in Sc. Parlt., 5. Are our Eyes so Blinded? Are our Ears so Deafned? Are our Tongues so Faltered?
a. 1800. T. Bellamy, Beggar Boy (1801), III. 42. In a voice, faltered by surprize … he eagerly demanded their business.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 65. The signes are a foltering in his fore legges.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 172. Some thing made those faultrings in my talke.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. IV. 290. He that hath long watched for my faultering, then got advantage against me.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xi. (1865), 89. He has no falterings of self-suspicion.
1871. Standard, 23 Jan. There were occasional natural falterings.
