"fluster" - Word of the Day from the OED

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fluster, v.

SECOND EDITION 1989

(flst(r))  Also ? 5 flostre, 9 dial. flowster. [This and the related n. closely resemble in sense the mod.Icel. flaustr hurry, bustle, flaustra to bustle. Cf. BLUSTER v.] 

    1. ? trans. ? To excite, stimulate. Obs.

1422 [see FLUSTERING vbl. n.].

    2. trans. To flush or excite with drink, make half-tipsy.

1604 SHAKES. Oth. II. iii. 60 Three else of Cyprus..Haue I to night fluster'd with flowing Cups. 1731 FIELDING Lett. Writers II. v, My nephew..hath taken me to the Tavern, and..almost flustered me. 1851 THACKERAY Eng. Hum. iii. (1876) 233 His head is flustered with burgundy.

    3. intr. To be excited or eager; to move with agitation or confusion; to bustle.

1613 F. ROBARTES Rev. Gospel 136 Who will not fluster to be one? 1636 Div. Trag. lately Acted 27 A blacke ball..flew into the bell free..then it flustered about the Church. 1808 JAMIESON, Fluster, to be in a state of bustle. 1865 G. MEREDITH R. Fleming xliii. (1890) 369 He broke out upon Mrs. Sumfit..which caused her to fluster guiltily. 1879 Cornh. Mag. June 699 They flustered out, abashed like poultry who have been played upon with garden hose. 1893 R. KIPLING Many Invent. 16 The Dutch gunboat came flustering up.

    b. Of seed: To shoot up quickly; to push.

1650 T. BAYLY Herba Parietis 123 Both were exceeding glad to see the corne so fluster upon the ground that was sown by their hands.

    c. To bluster, swagger.    d. dial. See quot.

1661 [see FLUSTERING ppl. a.]. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Flowster or fluster, to flourish or flutter, in showy colours.

    4. trans. To flurry, confuse.

1724 R. FALCONER Voy. (1769) 267 My scattered Thoughts, that were flustered upon that Occasion. 1760 A. MURPHY Way to Keep Him I. ii, Madam, If I was as you, I would not fluster myself about it. 1816 SCOTT Antiq. xxxiv, The aged housekeeper was no less flustered and hurried in obeying the numerous..commands of her mistress. 1870 SPURGEON Treas. Dav. Ps. lii. 9 Men must not too much fluster us.

    Hence flustering vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also flusterment, the state of being flustered.

1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.) 129 The flostyrynge of the losengers that the[e] Plesyn, thou sholdyst gretly drede. 1661-98 SOUTH Serm. III. 263 The Flustring Vain-glorious Greeks. 1804 T. BEWICK Brit. Birds II. 135 When it is very closely pursued, and compelled to rise, it [the coot] does this with much flustering and apparent difficulty. 1895 Expositor Apr. 296 Palpitations, flusterments, hesitancies seem to turn our message into farce.

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