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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Falter

Fal'ter, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. FALTERED; p. pr. & vb. n. FALTERING.] [O. Eng. faulter, from O. Fr. faulte, N. Fr. faute, fault, or from Eng. faulter, Scot. faultour, transgressor. It is impossible to derive the word from Sp. or Pg. faltar, to be wanting or deficient, to miss, to fail. See FAULT and FAULTER.] 1. To fall short; to fail; to stumble; especially, to hesitate, to stammer; as, his tongue falters. With faltering speech and visage incomposed. Milton.

  1. To tremble; to totter. “He found his legs falter.” Wiseman.
  2. To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise;—said of the mind or of thought.

Here indeed the power of distinct conception of space and distance falters. I. Taylor.

Fal'ter, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [Prov. Eng. falter, to thrash barley in the chaff; faltered, disheveled, probably allied to Celtic falt, human hair.] To thrash in the chaff; to cleanse or sift out, as barley. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.