“I d-don't know what you're talking about!” she stammered. He stammered an excuse and fled.
Recent Examples on the WebWhat seemed episodic in 2017 now comes across as a taut dramatic arc, the text sometimes stylized — characters tend to stammer repetitions of key lines — but the storytelling clear, lean and always supported by the agile music.New York Times, 15 May 2022 Sure, the weaker part of me will hustle along and stammer out apologies on arrival. James Parker, The Atlantic, 11 Feb. 2022 But their exit plan goes awry, leaving the guests, in an extremely awkward confrontation, to stammer through a vague explanation of all the little things that have felt wrong since their arrival. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Feb. 2022 After the initial stammered responses, someone said that would be impossible because grades are a service that universities provide to society. Anirban Mukhopadhyay, Quartz India, 6 May 2020 Coldplay has become a band defined by polish, but viewers here got quite the opposite: Martin in a fisherman’s sweater and beanie, fragile-seeming and stammering nervously into the camera. Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 21 Mar. 2020 Bloomberg acted wounded, stammering when challenged. Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 20 Feb. 2020 Shortly after the afternoon newscast, competing points of views on what Morris said while stammering during the newscast hit social media. Stephanie Toone, ajc, 27 Jan. 2020 Barry Yeoman, a man with a lifelong stutter, suggests that while society mostly views a stutter as a disability, stammering really isn’t the problem at all. Krista Stevens, Longreads, 8 Nov. 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English stameren, from Old English stamerian; akin to Old High German stamalōn to stammer, Old Norse stemma to hinder, damn up — more at stem