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Fluster   Listen
verb
Fluster  v. i.  To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated and confused. "The flstering, vainglorious Greeks."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fluster" Quotes from Famous Books



... the fact that she had engaged Miss Jones when she did, and that Winona's school clothes were all made and finished. There had been a fluster at the last, when it was discovered that her mackintosh was fully six inches too short for her new skirts, and that she had outgrown her thick boots, but a hurried visit to Great Marston had remedied these deficiencies, and the box was packed to everybody's ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil

... without waiting for a reply; "suppose that the house is alight. Well, the first thing you've got to do, is not to get into a fluster. That can't do no good, you know, and is sure to do mischief. Keep cool. That's the first thing, ma'am; and be deliberate in all ye do. The second thing is, to wrap a blanket round ye, an' get out of the house as fast as ye can without stoppin' to dress. It's of no use lookin' ...
— Fighting the Flames • R.M. Ballantyne

... and ran into the kitchen. The governor's sudden visit stirred and overwhelmed the whole household. A ferocious slaughter followed. A dozen fowls, five turkeys, eight ducks, were killed, and in the fluster the old gander, the progenitor of our whole flock of geese and a great favourite of mother's, was beheaded. The coachmen and the cook seemed frenzied, and slaughtered birds at random, without distinction of age or breed. ...
— The Wife and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... gather around what is new. And, because of these two deflecting factors, those who break through old forms must well expect to be dead before the new forms they have unconsciously created have found their true level, high or low, in the world of Art. When a thing is new how shall it be judged? In the fluster of meeting novelty, we have even seen coherence attempting to bind together two personalities so fundamentally opposed as those of Ibsen and Bernard Shaw dramatists with hardly a quality in common; no identity of tradition, or belief; not the faintest resemblance in methods ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... her, and I can possibly manage it, I will ask her myself to make one of your party. If so, you can go to her afterwards and make your own arrangements. Just write her a note, my dear, and say that I will call to-morrow at twelve. It might fluster her if I were to go ...
— Doctor Thorne • Anthony Trollope

... that eighteenpenny-worth would almost measure out the speaker. On giving another "hem," and again pulling up his gills, an old Kentish farmer, in a brown coat and mahogany-coloured tops, holloaed out, "I say, sir! I'm afear'd you'll be catching cold!" "I 'opes not," replied Jemmy in a fluster, "is it raining? I've no umbrella, and my werry best coat on!" "No! raining, no!" replied the farmer, "only you've pulled at your shirt so long that I think you must be bare behind! Haw! haw! haw!" at which all the males roared with laughter, and the females hid their faces ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees

... tell us,' said his mother, in a nervous paroxysm; 'for I am in such a fluster, I am sure I cannot answer for myself, and then Thomas may lose his place for breach ...
— Tancred - Or, The New Crusade • Benjamin Disraeli

... rear with the pain. Then off again, and at last, all hot and angry, we dash up to the station, and the man inside leaps out and throws up the money and runs off. Then my master strokes me down, and says: "Jenny, old girl, I'm sorry to fluster you so, but we must make a bit for the bairns at home, eh, old girl?" And he pats me, and I'd bite his hand if I could. As if I cared about his bairns! And so it goes on all day long, and at night ...
— The Children's Book of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton

... seemed to shine again. A party at Jacob Rhoneland's! It was a thing unheard of, and produced quite a sensation in the drowsy part of the town where he lived. Never had a household been in such a fluster as his was. What deep consultations were held to prevent the old man—who seemed to have grown quite cheerful and light-hearted, and chirruped about the house like some gay old old cricket—from meddling in every thing, and to throw dust in his eyes, so as to ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844 - Volume 23, Number 6 • Various

... bit of both, or either, ad lib. After a sufficient period of idealism, men become hopelessly self-conscious. That is, the great affective centers no longer act spontaneously, but always wait for control from the head. This always breeds a great fluster in the psyche, and the poor self-conscious individual cannot help posing and posturing. Our ideal has taught us to be gentle and wistful: rather girlish and yielding, and very yielding in our sympathies. In fact, ...
— Fantasia of the Unconscious • D. H. Lawrence

... pulled out a pocket-book, drew out of it a bundle of notes, and began turning them over with trembling fingers in a perfect fury of impatience. It was evident that he was in haste to explain something, and indeed it was quite necessary to do so. But probably feeling himself that his fluster with the money made him look even more foolish, he lost the last traces of self-possession. The money refused to be counted. His fingers fumbled helplessly, and to complete his shame a green note escaped ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... the thought. Why should we fluster ourselves, why wax so hot, when time thus brings its inevitable revenges? Composed in mind, let us pursue our own unruffled course, with calm assurance that justice will at length prevail. Let us comply with the dictates of sweetness and light, in reasonable ...
— Essays in Rebellion • Henry W. Nevinson

... grandfathers of some voke walked a-voot. I warrant she fancies she did a mighty matter, when she sent us that old gownd; some of my family would not have picked up such rags in the street; but poor people are always trampled upon.—The parish need not have been in such a fluster with Molly. You might have told them, child, your grandmother wore better things ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... the man continued, nodding at the chaise, "Lord Windermoor's. Came all in a fluster—dinner, bowl of punch, and put the horses to. For all the world like a runaway match, my dear—bar the bride. He brought Mr. Archer in the chay ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XXI • Robert Louis Stevenson

... he broke my agreeable meditations. "I'll tell you how it was, Master William; Jeanie and I were partners at the shearin' ("Evidently drunk," thought I), and I canna tell how it was ("I well believe you—you can not—but 'twas all my own folly," I muttered), but I found the maid in a sair fluster that e'en when we parted: ("You'll be in sorer fluster presently if I begin to you—you drunken idiot!" was my running commentary,) and sae just as I came by this auld thorn"—"Then you do know where you are—do you?" I cried ...
— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various

... short, he gave me an opportunity of studying John Bull, as I may say, stuffed naked—his greed, his usuriousness, his hypocrisy, his perfidy of the back-stairs, all swelled to the superlative—such as was well worth the little disarray and fluster of our ...
— St Ives • Robert Louis Stevenson

... I,—forgetting to kneel, in such a fluster was I—"my brother hath now brought tidings that the Scots come in force by the Aire Valley, with all speed, and are nearhand at ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... not leave that spot—standing statue-like and looking along both roads—until I heard the rumble of the departing train, and then I repaired to the Old Hall, my soul uplifted. I found Jone in an awful fluster about my being out so late; but I do stay pretty late sometimes when I walk by myself, and so he ...
— Pomona's Travels - A Series of Letters to the Mistress of Rudder Grange from her Former - Handmaiden • Frank R. Stockton

... out, To Desdemona hath to-night carous'd Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch: Three lads of Cyprus,—noble swelling spirits, That hold their honours in a wary distance, The very elements of this warlike isle,— Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups, And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards, Am I to put our Cassio in some action That may offend the isle:—but here they come: If consequence do but approve my dream, My boat sails freely, ...
— Othello, the Moor of Venice • William Shakespeare

... it was a shame, so it was, to part the poor pretty dear from his mother; and had all declared their hearts came into their mouths when he went alone into the library to see his grandfather, for "there was no knowing how he'd be treated, and his lordship's temper was enough to fluster them with old heads on their ...
— Little Lord Fauntleroy • Frances Hodgson Burnett



Words linked to "Fluster" :   flurry, discomposure, behave, ruffle, disconcert, comport, confuse, put off, conduct, bear, carry, deport, perturbation, acquit



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