▪ I. ˈmammering, vbl. n. Now rare.
[+ -ing1.]
1. A stammering, muttering.
| c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 668/27 Hec mutulatio, mameryng. 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 72 [He] drank to his wyfe and fell to his mammerings and mounched a pace. 1945 A. L. Rowse West-Country Stories 17 The innumerable mammering of bats' voices. |
2. A state of doubt, hesitation, or perplexity; chiefly in phr. in a mammering.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 343/1 He was in a mamering whether he would retourne agayn ouer the sea. 1533 ― Apol. xlii. ibid. 911/2 Y⊇ matter was in a mamering before y⊇ change was made. 1537 St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 527 The people in all partes..are very wylde,..at no stay, but in a mamoring, what they may do. 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Love 8 b, God..keepe us from falling away from the truth, or standing in mammering therof. 1609 [Bp. W. Barlow] Answ. Nameless Cath. 115 Hee..did protest euen while matters were in a mammering. 1612 R. Carpenter Soules Sent. 72 The carnall man stands here at a mammering and maruelling how it can bee done. 1639 Horn & Rob Gate Lang. Unl. xc. §886 The one goes on forward..without respit, the other staggers (is in a mammering). 1941 E. R. Eddison Fish Dinner (1972) vii. 108 Arquez, seeing..Clavius wounded and in a mammering whether to fly or fight: threw another chair. 1947 M. Lowry Let. 13 Aug. (1967) 151, I am all of a doodah. I am in a mammering. |
▪ II. † ˈmammering, ppl. a. Obs.
[f. mammer v. + -ing2.]
Hesitating.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 358 This doctrine doth abolish quite the doctrine of the law, of repentaunce,..and commaundeth a mammering doubtfulnesse. |