fluster

verb flusters · flustering · flustered

1. transitive To throw (someone) into a state of confusion or panic; to befuddle, to confuse. The aged housekeeper was no less flustered and hurried in obeying the numerous and contradictory commands of her mistress, […]

   Similar: agitate, bewilder, addle, baffle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump, baffound, bamboozle, bedevil

2. transitive To make emotionally overwhelmed or visibly embarrassed, especially in a sexual or romantic context.
3. broadly, transitive To turn on, to make horny.
4. dated, transitive To make (someone) feel flushed and hot through drinking alcoholic beverages; also, to make (someone) slightly drunk or tipsy. Three lads of Cypres, noble ſvvelling ſpirits, / That hold their honour, in a vvary diſtance, / The very Elements of this vvarlike Iſle, / Haue I tonight fluſtred vvith flovving cups, / And the vvatch too: novv mongſt this flocke of drunkards, / I am to put our Caſsio in ſome action, / That may offe
5. intransitive To be agitated and confused; to bustle. He seemed to fluster when speaking in front of many people.
6. intransitive To become overwhelmed or visibly embarrassed, especially in a sexual or romantic context.
7. broadly, intransitive To become turned on, to become horny.
8. UK, dialectal, intransitive To catch attention; to be showy or splendid.
9. intransitive, obsolete To boast or brag noisily; to bluster, to swagger. And the Apoſtle [Paul] ſeems here moſt peculiarly to have directed this Encomium of the Gospel, as a Defiance to the Philoſophers of his Time, the Fluſtring Vain-glorious Greeks, vvho pretended ſo much to magnify, and even Adore the VViſdom they profeſſed, […]
10. intransitive, obsolete Of a seed: to produce a shoot quickly.

Similar: faze

noun flusters

1. A state of agitation or confusion; a flutter. Good-morrovv, Madam; hovv do you do to-day? you ſeem to be in a little fluſter.

   Similar: flurry

2. obsolete A state of slight drunkenness or tipsiness; also, the excitement caused by this state. It is certainly a very agreeable change, when we see a glass raise a lifeless conversation into all the pleasures of wit and good humour. But when Caska adds to his natural impudence the fluster of a bottle, that which fools call fire when he was sober, all men abhor as outrage when he is drunk.
3. obsolete Showiness, splendour. Yet to vvork he fell, not omitting firſt to Sum himſelf up in the vvhole vvardrobe of his Function; […] as to the end that being huff'd up in all his Eccleſiaſtical fluſter, he might appear more formidable, and in the pride of his Heart and Habit, out-boniface an Humble Moderator.