FALTERING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does faltering mean? 

• FALTERING (noun)
  The noun FALTERING has 1 sense:

1. the act of pausing uncertainly

  Familiarity information: FALTERING used as a noun is very rare.

• FALTERING (adjective)
  The adjective FALTERING has 1 sense:

1. unsteady in speech or action

  Familiarity information: FALTERING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FALTERING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of pausing uncertainly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

falter; faltering; hesitation; waver

Context example:

there was a hesitation in his speech

Hypernyms ("faltering" is a kind of...):

pause (temporary inactivity)

Derivation:

falter (move hesitatingly, as if about to give way)

• FALTERING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unsteady in speech or action

Similar:

unsteady (subject to change or variation)

 Context examples 

“Have I offended the general?” said Catherine in a faltering voice.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It would be hard, indeed (with a faltering voice), if woman's feelings were to be added to all this.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

His endurance was faltering, but he compelled his arms and legs to drive him deeper until his will snapped and the air drove from his lungs in a great explosive rush.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Sometimes he was all but submerged, swimming through oblivion with a faltering stroke; and again, by some strange alchemy of soul, he would find another shred of will and strike out more strongly.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“I shall be very sorry to go away,” said she, with a faltering voice.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure—these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In such a voice as might be expected from a hopeless heart and fainting frame—a voice wretchedly low and faltering—I asked if a servant was wanted here?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She finished the concluding stanza without faltering and then slowly guided the conversation into less perilous channels.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The picture was then produced which the servant had found in her pocket; and when Elizabeth, in a faltering voice, proved that it was the same which, an hour before the child had been missed, she had placed round his neck, a murmur of horror and indignation filled the court.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Ham staggered, as well he might, under the blow Mr. Peggotty dealt him in his unbounded joy, as a mark of confidence and friendship; but feeling called upon to say something to us, he said, with much faltering and great difficulty: She warn't no higher than you was, Mas'r Davy—when you first come—when I thought what she'd grow up to be.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)