clutter

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See also: Clutter

English

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Etymology

From Middle English cloteren (to form clots; coagulate; heap on), from clot (clot), equivalent to clot +‎ -er (frequentative suffix). Compare Welsh cludair (heap, pile), cludeirio (to heap).

Pronunciation

Noun

clutter (countable and uncountable, plural clutters)

  1. (uncountable) A confused disordered jumble of things.
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: , London: R Sare,  Took, M Gillyflower, A & J Churchil, and J Hindmarsh.">…], →OCLC:
      He saw what a Clutter there was with Huge, Over-grown Pots, Pans, and Spits.
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2. (uncountable) Background echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
  3. (countable) Alternative form of clowder (collective noun for cats).
    • 2008, John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories, Introduction:
      Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.
  4. (obsolete) Clatter; confused noise.
    • October 14 1718, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift
      I hardly heard a word of news or politicks, except a little clutter about sending some impertinent presidents du parliament to prison
    • 1835, William Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett, James Paul Cobbett, Selections from Cobbett's political works, volume 1, page 33:
      It was then you might have heard a clutter: pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs and jordens, all put themselves in motion at once
  5. (mathematics) A Sperner family.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clutter (third-person singular simple present clutters, present participle cluttering, simple past and past participle cluttered)

  1. (transitive) To fill something with clutter.
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.
  2. (obsolete, intransitive) To clot or coagulate, like blood.
  3. (intransitive) To make a confused noise; to bustle.
  4. (transitive, intransitive) To utter words hurriedly, especially (but not exclusively) as a speech disorder (compare cluttering).

Derived terms

Translations

References