What does "falter" mean?

Falter: To hesitate; to speak brokenly or weakly; to stammer; as, his tongue falters. With faltering speech and visage incomposed. Milton.

Additional senses

2.To tremble; to totter; to be unsteady. "He found his legs falter." Wiseman.
3.To hesitate in purpose or action. Ere her native king Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. Shak.
4.To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; -- said of the mind or of thought. Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance falters. I. Taylor.
5.To utter with hesitation, or in a broken, trembling, or weak manner. And here he faltered forth his last farewell. Byron. Mde me most happy, faltering "I am thine." Tennyson.
6.Hesitation; trembling; feebleness; an uncertain or broken sound; as, a slight falter in her voice. The falter of an idle shepherd's pipe. Lowell.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00