FALTER

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

To hesitate; to speak brokenly or weakly; to stammer; as, his tongue falters. With faltering speech and visage incomposed. Milton.

To tremble; to totter; to be unsteady. "He found his legs falter." Wiseman.

To hesitate in purpose or action. Ere her native king Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. Shak.

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.

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.

Hesitation; trembling; feebleness; an uncertain or broken sound; as, a slight falter in her voice. The falter of an idle shepherd's pipe. Lowell.