▪ I. ˈbalter, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Also 7 baulter, 8–9 dial. bauter.
[prob. from ON; cf. Da. baltre, boltre to wallow, welter, tumble. See also boulter. The connexion between senses 1 and 2 and the others is not clear, but it may be either through the notion of tumbling (the hair), or of weltering.]
† 1. intr. To tumble about, to dance clumsily. (Isolated later example of baltering.)
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 103 Þay ben boþe blynde & balterande cruppelez. Ibid. C. 459 Blyþe of his wodbynde he balteres þer vnde[r]. c 1440 Morte Arth. (Roxb.) 66 He [the bear] baltyrde, he bleryde, He braundyschte thereafter. a 1500 Colkelbie Sow i. 302 (Jam.) Sum trottit..Sum balterit. 1952 Auden Nones 39 The baltering torrent Shrunk to a soodling thread. |
2. trans. (See quot.) dial.
| 1873 Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.), Bauter, to tread in a clownish manner, as an ox does the grass. |
3. trans. To tangle, ‘mat’ (the hair).
| 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 216 To baulter one's hair, complicare crines. 1879 Shropsh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Bautered, tangled, unkempt; said of hair. |
4. trans. To clot or clog with anything sticky.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xxix. ii, Filthy excrements hanging to sheeps tailes..baltered together into round pils or bals. [See balter n.] |
5. intr. (for refl.) To form tangled knots or clots, to stick together by coagulation.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xii. xvii, It [a goat's beard] baltereth and cluttereth into knots and balls. |
▪ II. ˈbalter, n. dial.
[f. prec. vb.]
A clot, a coagulated lump.
| Mod. Northampton dial. Batter is said to be baltered when the flour is not all mixed, but hangs together in small dry lumps which are called balters. |