Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A state of indecisive agitation.
- v. To be nervously irresolute in acting or doing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Wiktionary
- n. The state of being undecided.
- n. A form of noise which is intentionally applied to randomize errors which occur in the processing of both digital audio and digital video data
- v. obsolete To tremble, shake, or shiver with cold.
- v. To be uncertain or unable to make a decision about doing something.
- v. To do something nervously.
- v. computer graphics To render an approximation of (an image, etc.) by using dot patterns in similar colours to those that are unavailable on the system.
WordNet 3.0
- v. act nervously; be undecided; be uncertain
- v. make a fuss; be agitated
- n. an excited state of agitation
Etymologies
- From didder from Middle English didderen, meaning "to tremble". (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of didder, from Middle English didderen, to tremble. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The dither is a # repetitive pattern, this should help the compression algorithm.”
“Should the military "dither" so we make this a never ending war.”
“Six out of 10 complain the Prime Minister has a tendency to "dither" and only 26 per cent believe he has shown decisive leadership.”
“Thanks to Cheney, "dither" has taken on a new connotation for me.”
Mitchell Bard: We Should Be Grateful That Obama Is "Dithering"
“Dick Cheney ought to be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity; the World Court should not "dither" about filing such charges against him and George W. Bush.”
“We must not "dither" now in standing up to his rhetoric.”
“Here, without any further delaying in dishonor of Dick Cheney, I've decided to never use the word "dither" again from me, here are my top 11 favorite movies of 2007, and as usual, please feel free to add any you think I may have snubbed.”
“I'm going to need synonyms for "dither" to keep things from getting too repetitive around here.”
Peace, order and good government, eh?: February 2005 Archives
“Now, "experts say insurgents have retaken momentum as politicians 'dither' over cabinet posts.”
“In a good composition it is as though the parts had been carefully placed in rhythmic relation and then the picture jarred a little, so that everything is slightly shifted out of place, thus introducing our "dither" or play of life between the parts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dither’.
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 185 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Mark
scrawl, blemish, spot, mar, damage, speckle, bespatter, splash, smirch, stain, tattoo, impress and 20 more...
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I am : talking
"These are talking words," I announce. "You mean verbs that can be used for dialogue?" you ask. "That's right!" I agree.
say, speak, ask, declare, query, shout, yell, scream, shriek, squeal, squeak, screech and 81 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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mager's Words
enigmatic, pragmatic, pulchritudinous, nincompoop, annihilation, sociality, entailment, acrosome, egalitarian, culture, technocracy, shenanigan and 541 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dither.
dailyword Molly used this word in one of the Harry Potter books when she got all excited when she found out that Ron was a prefect. Jun 29, 2012