fluster

From a Scandinavian (North Germanic) language, akin to Icelandic flaustra (“to be flustered”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈflʌstə(ɹ)/

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• Rhymes: -ʌstə(ɹ)

fluster (third-person singular simple present flusters, present participle flustering, simple past and past participle flustered)

1. (dated, transitive) To make hot and rosy, as with drinking.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 20, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     His practice of flustering himself daily with claret.

2. (by extension, transitive) To confuse; befuddle; throw into panic by making overwrought with confusion.

   He seemed to get flustered when speaking in front of too many people.

3. (intransitive) To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated and confused.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     the flustring, vain-glorious Greeks

• flustered (adjective)
• flustering (adjective, present participle)

fluster (plural flusters)

1. A state of being flustered; overwrought confusion.

• RESTful, fluters, furtles, restful