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To move with quick vibrations or undulations; as, a sail flutters in the wind; a fluttering fan.

a charge, or by approach of a charged object. Such a property is called flyaway. Syn. -- fluttering. [WordNet 1.5]

t in perplexity; to seek awkwardly; as, to fumble for an excuse. Dryden. My understanding flutters and my memory fumbles. Chesterfield. Alas! how he fumbles about the domains. Wordsworth.

To hang fluttering in the air, or on the wing; to remain in flight or floating about or over a place or object; to be suspended in the air above something. Great flights of birds are hovering about the bridge, and settling on it. Addison. A hovering mist came swimming o'er his sight. Dryden.

volatile; changeable; as, a mercurial youth; a mercurial temperament. A mercurial man Who fluttered over all things like a fan. Byron.

trongly than usual; to throb; to bound with emotion or exertion; to pulsate violently; to flutter; -- said specifically of the heart when its action is abnormal, as from excitement.

To sigh; to flutter; to languish. [Poetic] The whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. Pope.

A bird tied by the foot, to serve as decoy to other birds by its fluttering.

In a flutter; with palpitation or quick succession of beats. Lowell. "The fox's heart went pitapat." L'Estrange.

contempt. And for mine own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray. Shak. Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing. Prior.

Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter; bother. [Written also potter, and pudder.] "What a pother and stir!" Oldham. "Coming on with a terrible pother." Wordsworth.

a shred; a tatter; a fragment. Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tossed, And fluttered into rags. Milton. Not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty. Fuller.

To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter. On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined, Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind. Dryden.

To play loosely; to move like a wave, one way and the other; to float; to flutter; to undulate. His purple robes waved careless to the winds. Trumbull. Where the flags of three nations has successively waved. Hawthorne.

r move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter. With banners and pennons wavering with the wind. Ld. Berners. Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities. Sir W. Scott.

sword, a crown, a shackle, etc. Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tossed, And fluttered into rags. Milton.

are used only as an assistance in running or swimming. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. Deut. xxxii. 11.