Definition of "halting"

Him we enlisted at Para, on the recommendation of the steamship company, on whose vessels he had learned to speak a halting English.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton

But alas ! alas ! the faintings, the haltings, the back-slidings of Christians, are enough to make us tremble while we rejoice in the hope set before us.

1841, George Mogridge, Thoughts for the thoughtful, by old Humphrey, page 167