dither
Americannoun
-
a trembling; vibration.
-
a state of flustered excitement or fear.
verb (used without object)
-
dithers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dithered,
past participle, past
-
dithering
present participle
-
to act irresolutely; vacillate.
-
North England. to tremble with excitement or fear.
verb
-
to be uncertain or indecisive
-
to be in an agitated state
-
to tremble, as with cold
noun
-
a state of indecision
-
a state of agitation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dithersimple
-
ditherssimple
-
have ditheredperfect
-
has ditheredperfect
-
am ditheringprogressive
-
are ditheringprogressive
-
is ditheringprogressive
-
have been ditheringperfect progressive
-
has been ditheringperfect progressive
Past
-
ditheredsimple
-
had ditheredperfect
-
was ditheringprogressive
-
were ditheringprogressive
-
had been ditheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dither
1640–50; variant of didder ( late Middle English diddere ); cf. dodder 1
Explanation
When you dither, you're flustered because you can't make up your mind about something. You might dither about what to do if your two best friends invite you to parties on the same night. The verb dither implies not only that you're having a hard time deciding about something, but that you're upset or agitated about it. You might say to your friend, "Don't just pace around and dither about what to wear! We're going to be late!" In the 17th century, dither meant "quake or tremble," and by the early 1800s it came to mean both "vacillate" and "be anxious."
Vocabulary lists containing dither
"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Elias has decided to stay put even as prices dither.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
And while Hamlet may dither in seeking revenge for his father’s murder, we don’t hope that the scheming Claudius gets away with it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
The Royal College of Nursing has called for a "significant pay rise" and accused UK ministers of "dither and delay".
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2025
Providing this road map of his intentions puts Smith on firm footing to challenge the judge if she continues to dither.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2024
She had worked herself up into a real dither.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
But the feature dithers in development, which becomes something of a running joke here; the shot of a stone-faced Mr. McElwee watching a ridiculous promo reel is a moment of perfectly understated comedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
And so even if Congress dithers after today, transparency is coming to platforms one way or another.
From The Verge ● May 5, 2022
The narrator dithers over how much she wants a leadership position in this unofficial hierarchy of casual dismissiveness, earnestness avoidance and radical obsolescence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2021
“Borders are closed, aircraft grounded and ships anchored as W.H.O. mutely dithers over whether or not to declare an emergency.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2020
And the high brass went into a dither to end all dithers as tapes of the received material reached the Pentagon and were translated into intelligible speech and pictures.
From The Machine That Saved The World by Murray Leinster
Kinsky had earlier rushed out to stop Adam Armstrong reaching a long ball after Kevin Danso dithered and allowed the striker to sprint ahead.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
The air force had flagged the need for new advanced fighter aircraft 25 years ago, but successive governments dithered on the purchase.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
In 2022, 17 years after the Rolling Stones released their most recent album of original songs, Mick Jagger decided the band had dithered and procrastinated long enough.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
He advocated for the breaching of four massive dams on the Snake River to restore salmon habitats, and he had little patience for politicians who dithered rather than act to save the whales.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
“But, Fusia, what about your education?” dithered my mother.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
"What needs to happen now is for the Labour Party to stop dithering and be the voice of workers," she added.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
“Fashion is art,” declared the Met’s director, Max Hollein, at the show’s press preview last week, as if to say, Let’s stop dithering on the subject.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
After some dithering, I settled on my home state of New York.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026
It would rather binge-watch thousands of hours of trashy TV shows than deal with the dithering crew of space hippies to which it’s been assigned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025
For Teller, however, it replicated the unfocused dithering he had been grousing about.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
