Definition of "flutter"

Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, [...]

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Under the Ashes”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, page 112

Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.

1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Council with the Munchkins”, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M. Hill Co., page 20

If you haue vvrit your Annales true, 'tis there, / That like an Eagle in a Doue-cote, I / Flatter'd[sic – meaning Flutter'd] your Volcians in Corioles.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene vi], page 30

There was a clearness of expression in this, and a downright surrender of himself, which so flattered her and so fluttered her that she was almost reduced to the giving of herself up because she could not reply to such an appeal in language less courteous than that of agreement

1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “The Honourable Mr. Glacock”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], page 104

This was the first time that Nosenko had been subjected to a lie detector — or what the CIA called fluttering. The Soviet Union did not use such devices for interrogation.

1978, Edward Jay Epstein, Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald, page 38

"Anyway, she cracked and we fluttered her and—" / "Fluttered her?" / "Sorry, gave her a polygraph, a lie detector test. And she passed, more or less, […]

2002, Paul Eddy, Flint’s Law, page 90

the chirp and flutter of some single bird

c. 1838, Richard Monckton Milnes, The Forest

flutter of spirits

1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […]

Their visitor was an issue - at least to the imagination, and they arrived finally, under provocation, at intensities of flutter in which they felt themselves so compromised by his hoverings that they could only consider with relief the fact of nobody's knowing.

1900, Henry James, The Soft Side The Third Person Chapter 3

The possibility was studied that there might be some unknown phenomenon at work that could cause a reduction in structural stiffness with age. Such a reduction in stiffness could result in a reduced flutter speed and lead to flutter. In 2004, Airbus conducted GVT in support of its MRTT program. The testing was conducted on an aged A310 aircraft (MSN 523) that had accumulated over 28 000 flight hours. This test aircraft had the same design of VTP and rudder as the occurrence aircraft. GVT results found that fin bending and rudder rotation frequencies of the MRTT test aircraft were consistent with those obtained during the original A310-300 certification. No indication was found to suggest that stiffness had reduced with age.

2007, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, “1.12.12 Age-Related Structures and Materials Degradation”, in Aviation Investigation Report A05F0047, Loss of Rudder in Flight, Air Transat Airbus A310-308 C-GPAT, Miami, Florida, 90 nm S, 06 March 2005‎, archived from the original on 23 July 2021, page 40

"Oh, by the way, I heard of a rather good thing today, New Kleinfonteins; it's a gold mine in Rhodesia. If you'd like to have a flutter you might make a bit."

1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 93, in Of Human Bondage

So with his victory odds currently at 14/1 or 3/1 for the podium, he's still most certainly well worth a flutter […]

30 July, 2009, Eurosport, Gray Matter: How will Schu do?