clutter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A confused disordered jumble of things.

   He saw what a Clutter there was with Huge, Over-grown Pots, Pans, and Spits.

2. 2
   noun

   Alternative form of clowder (“collective noun for cats”).

   Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

3. 3
   noun

   Clatter; confused noise.

   October 14 1718, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift I hardly heard a word of news or politicks, except a little clutter about sending some impertinent presidents du parliament to prison

4. 4
   verb

   To fill something with clutter.

   That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.

5. 5
   verb

   To clot or coagulate, like blood.

   It battereth and cluttereth into knots and balls

6. 6
   verb

   To make a confused noise; to bustle.

   It [the goose] clutter'd here, it chuckled there; / It stirr'd the old wife's mettle: / She shifted in her elbow-chair, / And hurl'd the pan and kettle.

7. 7
   noun

   unwanted echoes that interfere with the observation of signals on a radar screen

8. 8
   noun

   a confused multitude of things

Etymology

From Middle English cloteren (“to form clots; coagulate; heap on”), from clot (“clot”), equivalent to clot + -er (frequentative suffix). Compare Welsh cludair (“heap, pile”), cludeirio (“to heap”).