falter
Plural: falters
Noun
- the act of pausing uncertainly
- An unsteadiness.
Verb
Verb Forms: faltered, faltering, falters
- To lose strength or momentum; to hesitate.
- be unsure or weak
- "Their enthusiasm is faltering"
- move hesitatingly, as if about to give way
- walk unsteadily
- speak haltingly
- "The speaker faltered when he saw his opponent enter the room"
- To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off.
- To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.
- To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.
- To stumble.
- To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).
- To hesitate in purpose or action.
- To cleanse or sift, as barley.
Examples
- Don’t falter on your turn; confident plays often score best in Words With Friends.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English falteren (“to stagger; be unsteady, tremble, quiver; to stammer; be entangled, get caught”), further origin unknown. Probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse faltrask (“to hesitate, be puzzled, be encumbered”). May also be a frequentative of fold, although the change from d to t is unusual.
Scrabble Score: 9
falter: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfalter: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
falter: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 10
falter: valid Words With Friends Word