Link Centre Dictionary

dither

dit·her

UK/ˈdɪðə/ US/ˈdɪðɚ/ uncommon
noun (1) verb (2)

noun

1.

an excited state of agitation

  • “he was in a dither”
  • “there was a terrible flap about the theft”
Synonyms

verb

1.
2.

make a fuss; be agitated

Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • dither fish
  • in a dither

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.