dither

CEFRC1

/ˈdɪðə/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To be unable to decide because of worry or uncertainty.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To be uncertain or unable to make a decision; to vacillate, hesitate, or delay.

Examples

  • I'm all in a dither about the concert.

  • She tends to dither when faced with choices.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To do something nervously.

  2. To tremble, shake, or shiver.

  3. To apply an algorithm to digital data to minimize the effects of quantization:

More examples

In context

  • 2012, The Economist, Sept. 22nd issue, "Indian Reform: At Last" The dithering Mr Singh of recent times may worry that his reform proposals are already too bold. The reforming Mr Singh of yore would see them as just the start.

  • Presently he came running out of the scullery, with the soapy water dripping from him, dithering with cold.

  • Look at how pixelly this wall texture is. You almost don't even notice the dithering when driving by quick. Up close though, it's real chunky.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She began to blank over which flavor of ice cream to choose.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Variant of didder, from Middle English dideren (“to tremble”). Compare Middle English bididren, bididdren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to deceive, trick”). Alternatively, perhaps with expressive voicing from *titeren, from Proto-Germanic *titrōną. If so, then a doublet of teeter and cognate with Old High German zittarōn (German zittern) and Old Norse titra (Faroese titra, Icelandic titra). Alternatively an unrelated reduplicative onomatopoeia.