clitter

English

Etymology

Related to clatter.

Verb

clitter (third-person singular simple present clitters, present participle clittering, simple past and past participle clittered)

1. To clatter lightly; to make a soft rattling noise.
   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:

     Howard […] was even more aware of something else. A clittering sound. It was coming from behind him, and it was getting closer.

Noun

clitter (countable and uncountable, plural clitters)

1. Loose stones on hillsides deposited by weathering.
   • 1967 [1953], R.Hansford Worth, chapter 1, in G.M. Spooner, F.S. Russell, editors, Worth’s Dartmoor, Newton Abbott: David and Charles, →ISBN, page 24:

     A ‘clitter’ or ‘clatter’ is a mass of boulders: it may be in the nature of a scree at the foot of the parent rock, or it may be more or less far removed from any rock exposure to which its origin can be directly attributed.

Synonyms

• scree