flustering

English

Etymology

From fluster +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈflʌstəɹɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: flust‧er‧ing

Adjective

flustering (comparative more flustering, superlative most flustering)

1. Agitated, confusing.
   • 1840, [James Fenimore Cooper], The Pathfinder: Or, The Inland Sea. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 53:

     To me it seems, Mabel, that whenever a thing is really grand and potent, it has a quiet majesty about it, that is altogether unlike the frothy and flustering manner of smaller matters, and so it was with them rapids.

   • 1875, Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:

     There is always a flustering breeze in the air and a perturbation generally through the county when they come or go, […]

   • 1997, Rosemary Perry, Teaching Practice: A Guide for Early Childhood Students, Routledge, page 57:

     Although at times my prac experiences were flustering and frustrating, I have gained many new insights into catering for the individual needs of children.

   • 2004, Geoffrey Petty, Teaching Today: A Practical Guide, page 361:

     There is nothing more flustering than to wrestle with an unfamiliar piece of equipment in the presence of a class!

   • 2007, Frank Swinnerton, Coquette, READ BOOKS, page 39:

     She almost forgot Toby while she was bathed in this flustering brilliance of light and noise.

2. (obsolete) Boasting or bragging noisily; blustering, swaggering.
   • 1694 May 9 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1698, Robert South, “Christianity Mysterious, and the Wisdom of God in Making it so, Proved in a Sermon Preached at Westminster-Abbey, April 29. 1694.”, in Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, London: […] Tho[mas] Warren for Thomas Bennet […], →OCLC, page 263:

     And the Apoſtle [Paul] ſeems here moſt peculiarly to have directed this Encomium of the Gospel, as a Defiance to the Philoſophers of his Time, the Fluſtring Vain-glorious Greeks, vvho pretended ſo much to magnify, and even Adore the VViſdom they profeſſed, […]

Derived terms

• flusteringly

Verb

flustering

1. present participle and gerund of fluster