clutter

plural clutters

1. uncountableA confused disordered jumble of things.

   He saw what a Clutter there was with Huge, Over-grown Pots, Pans, and Spits.

   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[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   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.

   2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7

2. uncountableBackground echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
3. alternativecollectivecountableAlternative form of clowder.

   there is always a clutter of cats, children, washing, and women with untidy hair.

   1946, Blackwood's Magazine, W. Blackwood, page 121

   2 more examples

   Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

   2008, John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories, Introduction

   It was unbelievable that he was afraid of being ousted from the house of his dreams by one senile old man and a clutter of cats!

   1995, Sybil Marshall, The Chequer board, Penguin

   Synonyms: clowder, glaring

4. countableobsoleteuncountableClatter; 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

   1 more example

   It was then you might have heard a clutter: pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs and jordens, all put themselves in motion at once[…]

   1835, William Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett, James Paul Cobbett, Selections from Cobbett's political works, volume 1, page 33

5. countableuncountablemathematicsA Sperner family.

present singular third person clutters · participle present cluttering · participle past cluttered · past cluttered

1. transitiveTo fill something with clutter.

   That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.

   2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo clot or coagulate, like blood.

   It battereth and cluttereth into knots and balls

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XII.]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo make a confused noise; to bustle.

   It [the goose] clutter'd here, it chuckled there; / It stirr'd the old wife's mettle: / She shifted in her elbow-chair, / And hurl'd the pan and kettle.

   1832, Alfred Tennyson, “The Goose”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 231

4. intransitivetransitiveTo utter words hurriedly, especially (but not exclusively) as a speech disorder (compare cluttering).

plural Clutters

1. A surname.