mutter

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌtə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌtɚ/, [ˈmʌɾɚ]

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐtə/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: mut‧ter

From Middle English muteren, moteren, of imitative origin.

Compare Low German mustern, musseln (“to whisper”), German muttern (“to mutter; whisper”), Old Norse muðla (“to murmur”). Compare also Latin muttīre, mutīre.

mutter (plural mutters)

1. A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.

   The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter.

mutter (third-person singular simple present mutters, present participle muttering, simple past and past participle muttered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.

   You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.

   The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.

   • 2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     This set – the set of Rosol's life – was studded with aces and menacing ground-strokes that left Nadal an impotent spectator often muttering to himself and at the umpire regarding a perceived misdemeanour by his opponent.

2. To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.

   The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

     Meantime your filthy foreigner will stare, / And mutter to himself.

3. To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.

   April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.

   • 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book VIII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Thick lightnings flash, the muttering thunder rolls.

• (speak under one's breath): growl, grumble, mumble
• (speak incoherently): babble, mumble, murmur, ramble, stutter
• (make a low sound): growl, putter, rumble
• See also Thesaurus:mutter

Borrowed from Hindi मटर (maṭar).

• matar

mutter

1. (Indian cuisine) Peas.

• mutter paneer

From German Mutter (“mother”).

• IPA^(key): /mɔtər/, [ˈmɔd̥ɐ], /mutər/, [ˈmud̥ɐ]

mutter c (singular definite mutteren, not used in plural form)

1. mommy, mummy, ma
2. old woman
3. missus

• “mutter” in Den Danske Ordbog

From a Germanic language, compare Finnish mutteri.

mutter (genitive mutri, partitive mutrit)

1. nut (that screws onto a bolt)

From German Mutter.

mutter m (definite singular mutteren, indefinite plural muttere or mutre or mutrer, definite plural mutterne or mutrene)

1. a nut (for bolts)

   skrue og mutter - nut and bolt

• “mutter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From German Mutter.

mutter m (definite singular mutteren, indefinite plural mutterar or mutrar, definite plural mutterane or mutrane)

1. (hardware) a nut (for bolts)

• “mutter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from German Mutter. First attested in 1793.

mutter c

2. a nut (for bolts)

• skruv (“screw”)

Deverbal from muttra (“to mutter”). First attested in 1924.

mutter n (uncountable)

2. mutter (muttering, utterances under one's breath, often in discontent)
   1. grumbling

• “mutter”, in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker [Dictionaries of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• mutter in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)