How To Use Muttering In A Sentence

Two bus-rides and a walk in the rain later we found the old dairy farm, muttering under our breaths about the wisdom of locating such an establishment way out in the sticks.
Muttering under his breath, the soldier extended the spyglass, increasing the magnification of the instrument.
He was muttering incessantly to himself, as if delighted at having found his tongue, his head swaying on his shoulders, and a strange murmur, soft, birdlike, meaningless, like sounds heard from a vast distance, coming from his wide-open mouth. Vandover and the Brute
From beyond the doors, the hubbub still continued; but it trailed off, damped by the hush of those in front to a kind of shamefaced muttering. Funeral Games
So saying, he dismissed Roland Graeme, through a different door from that by which he had entered, signed a cross, and pronounced a benedicite as they parted, and then, still muttering to himself, retired into the garden, and locked the door on the inside. The Abbot

He conferred again, and I tried to picture the other side of the screen, with the Rani, sharp-faced and thin in her silk shawl, muttering her instructions to him, and puzzled to myself what the odd persistent noise was that I could hear above the soft pipes of the hidden orchestra - a gentle, rhythmic swishing from beyond the screen, as though a huge fan were being used. Fiancée
I followed him inside the rambling barbed wire, shaking my head and muttering “Cayuse?” Silver Zombie
So he may appreciate the paradox of his lightning ascent in his second calling – not to mention the mutterings of those press-box colleagues who have toiled diligently for years without recognition from their trade's association and remember the days when they called him Captain Grumpy, a soubriquet he did his best to live up to. US hard courts will reveal if Andy Murray's lapses are part of a cycle | Kevin Mitchell
You see them muttering together in corners, their skin grey and baggy and their unbrushed hair matted with Playdoh.
The hairs on its chin muffle its muttering, and its skin is moist, laughable, and it's big. Goat
Graham is still swotting up on bicycles and has got to the stage where he's constantly muttering technical-sounding buzzwords.
He held his hand in the air, muttering Swahili curses as I wound the fabric round.
She basically went all to pieces and I spent more than an hour angrily muttering and refolding every piece of linen in the closet so that when I was finished, it looked like this.
Muttering some more apologies, which Rose echoed, he went with her down the road. UNREASONABLE DOUBT
Affecting someone's conscience by grace and restraint does not mean rolling over and playing dead, muttering meaningless politically correct platitudes, or remaining silent as many find it politic to do.
No wonder the guy muttering the prayers over the burial plot has a wireless phone receiver permanently fixed to his right ear. Times, Sunday Times
I can see "purring," and even "muttering," which brings to mind bits of charred wood falling with little thunks. Languagehat.com: MURMURING?
Beyond shakings of heads and dark mutterings, I can get nothing out of Wada or the steward. CHAPTER XXXI
So I took my time finishing the job, heaved myself upright and turned to face the source of the muttering.
After all, if you wander past many licensed premises in the early hours of the morning you are likely to hear subdued mutterings which the more feeble-minded are likely to interpret as ghosts.
Howell was muttering threats and imprecations.
I had to quietly excuse myself from a Vinyasa class with mutterings of trick knee.
Still, we mellow out round the fire, toasting marshmallows and muttering into the gloom.
The old women called at houses selling lucky charms and muttering curses if they found a door slammed in their faces. LOST SUMMER
Fact is, his grogginess is of a piece with his intensely absurd comedy, the enervated mutterings of one worn out by too much hard thinking.
His friend began muttering in German and what I possibly believe is that they were talking about me.
When the game was over, Drew stalked off, muttering obscenities under his breath.
The yellow youth in the grass skirt was swaying beneath a mango tree, muttering to himself. Times, Sunday Times
He was muttering unconnected phrases, like ‘make you love me’ ‘dog… no, mine’ it was insane jabber.
It wasn't so long ago that a request for a third glass of fino sherry would raise a few eyebrows and mutterings about a drink problem.
These aren't just the mutterings of an old curmudgeon.
Little wonder there are dark mutterings that some in the elite are already planning for the new drachma. Times, Sunday Times
Muttering how far behind he was with correspondence he moved towards his study. IN LOVE AND WAR
Kira carried on walking, muttering angrily to herself about the absolute stupidity and selfishness of demons and mythical creatures.
Mr Morrigon's secretary was at her side muttering platitudes about the weather and asking her how many sugars she'd like in her coffee.
But it is no use muttering about Luddism when people are simply asking how society will gain from new medical technologies or biobanks.
When Jana emerged from the stall, she was tucking her white shirt into the regulation plaid skirt and was muttering harshly under her breath.
Muttering and cursing to herself she pulls herself upright and finds that her trousers are covered in mucky water from a bowl that has been left on the floor.
Then he concluded by shaking his head and muttering, "Tough place. Christianity Today
Instead of yelling back or muttering cusses at her father, Jazlyn just balled her hands into fists.
People would run from across the street to try and grab a dry space among the crowd, who were muttering to themselves and shuffling from foot to foot while they waited for the storm to abate.
One wrote: 'Where did this idea that mumbling and muttering makes a drama more realistic? Times, Sunday Times
Mood index: slightly horrified: early morning mutterings from the AP newswire: August 3rd, 2005
He was heard muttering in a barely audible voice.
Then he fell back on the bed and tossed about as though he was in the throes of a poison, muttering through clenched teeth.
There was a surge of muttering among the guardsmen, but most of it seemed to be agreement that the young man was more churl than Charl. THE GOLDEN FOOL: BOOK TWO OF THE TAWNY MAN
Neruda is master of a living world in turmoil, and his expression is at times scarcely more than a sibylline stammer, a primitive muttering.
The lights were still on at my house and I walked in, barely muttering a goodnight to him.
His foot was throbbing madly, but he gave the door another kick, muttering more curses under his breath.
When she saw me, she rose and came hurriedly at me with a gugglet58 of water; and, muttering spells over it, she besprinkled me and said, “Come forth from this thy shape into the shape of a dog;” and I became on the instant a dog. The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
Muttering under his breath, he gets a sponge from the kitchen and starts mopping up the wine from the table before it can spill onto the floor.
John deBrun had been muttering about Joginstead and a bath under his breath, while every once in a while Oaxyctl caught the long-off look of mourning in the man's eyes. Crystal Rain
I crumpled to the ground where I lay muttering to myself about all the things I did wrong in my life.
But none of the people muttering came any nearer. CHARMED LIFE
'If you sit down and listen in any moderately lucid state of mind the impression you have is of an old man muttering and ranting on in the aural foreground, while some young lads, engaged on some completely unrelated project, footle around with the controls on a mixing desk in the next room' FallNet - the punk foot of nose
Astor could ignore someone beside him mouthing words without sound and muttering impatiently whenever he had to rewind the tape.
He then lit the incense and let the smoke rise for a few moments before taking it and walking around the room muttering the same words he had spoken before.
Elah then returned to the sink and poured the last remaining drops into the sink, touched plastic-tipped fingers to it and abluted the smooth surface of his face, muttering a few words of prayer as he did so. Archive 2008-08-01
Of course, the rest of the nation — or, perhaps, most of it — was laughing at the Cowboys, hoping they'd plunge to 0-16 and owner Jerry Jones wound be found, like Dickens's Miss Havisham, wandering his $1.1 billion stadium barefoot in tailored Neiman Marcus pajamas, muttering gibberish about Tex Schramm and the NFL's collective bargaining agreement. In Dallas, Stars Are Again Aligned
There is some muttering about being 'dragooned', but I do not take insubordination from the lower ranks. Home | Mail Online
One wrote: 'Where did this idea that mumbling and muttering makes a drama more realistic? Times, Sunday Times
Later, he would dimly recall Tychus muttering and shoving and positioning him, sometimes ungently, but never, ever letting him give up. Starcraft II: Devils’ Due
Williams subsided over his beer, muttering some kind of incoherent threat, as Leslie smiled.
After all, if you wander past many licensed premises in the early hours of the morning you are likely to hear subdued mutterings which the more feeble-minded are likely to interpret as ghosts.
But the boy Mohammed being by me objurgated-for I remarked in him a jaunty demeanour combined with neglectfulness of ceremonies-saluted it sulkily, muttering the while hints about the holiness of his birthplace exempting him from the trouble of stooping. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah
I follow sullenly, muttering something barely coherent, concerning lies and unfairness.
I heard two more men muttering by the tailboards, found the driver's cab of the slabber, and lifted myself up. THE TARTAN RINGERS
I trudged to my room, all the way muttering about how she would blackmail me with this little bit of information.
I have a vision at this point of Quantum Fields staggering back and, hand to brow, muttering ‘Godfrey Daniel, I've been hornswoggled!’
Muttering a stream of obscenities, she threw the pan into the sink with a loud clatter.
He made it a point to identify all of them, receiving, while he did so, scowls and mutterings, and reciprocating with cocky bullyings and threatenings. CHAPTER III
The form _patrying cove_ seems to suggest a derivation from 'pattering' or 'muttering' -- the Pater - noster, up to the time of the Reformation, was recited by the priest in a low voice as far as 'and lead us not into temptation' when the choir joined in. Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896]
For me this began just two minutes after the final whistle, with despondent Lundoners in the street muttering into their handies about sensorily challenged linesmen, crap refereeing, and unforgivably bad playing by the England side. Francis Sedgemore
We started to go through the kitchen, to the back door, but we heard clattering and muttering.
The mutterings ceased when the ball split the posts and landed over the dead-ball line. Times, Sunday Times
Mutterings rippled around the room about how all refugees should be taken in, but the squadron leader shook his head sombrely.
muttering profanely
They began muttering, and he heard a chair scrape across the floor, followed quickly by three more.
Vauban never spared himself during the process, and was always on hand, muttering away in a Burgundian dialect littered with forceful neologisms.
He passed one of the youth gangs on the way, muttering into their phones and thumbing at their keyboards, coordinating their crimefighting activities.
Picking up the cup of milk with bound hands I kicked the food back at the stringy, oily servant, growling and muttering a warning.
I am becoming morbid, and my old indigestion is hinting and muttering. THE ETERNITY OF FORMS
Ivan Nastiklof was there, hanging over a basin, vying with its pallor, muttering to himself and disliking what he heard. SOMEWHERE EAST OF LIFE
After a few more attempts at conversation, he got angry and started muttering ‘Posh Whalley Range lady… la-di-da Moss Side lady’.
Viro walked down the path beyond the witch's house, muttering a thousand oaths against sorcery.
And many people are so anxious to pre-empt this accusation that they ventriloquize the reactions of Sunni mobs as if they were the vox populi, all the while muttering that we must take care not to offend such supersensitive people. Archive 2007-06-01
The leprechaun skipped along, his footsteps impossibly light, with his face buried in The Hobbit, laughing every now and then or muttering a "begorra. The Woods Out Back
Little wonder there are dark mutterings that some in the elite are already planning for the new drachma. Times, Sunday Times
I glared at the woman, who shut up pretty quickly, then placed my hands on either side of the small circle, muttering the words of a spell.
Emanuel shook his head, muttering about the misguidedness of heathens.
There were whispered mutterings about what was going on. Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years with Brian Clough
The equity of that government is justly suspected by others which is so suspicious of itself as to take notice of, or be influenced by, the secret, various, uncertain mutterings of the common people. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John)
He shifts, muttering about a stupid feather, and I crack a weak, watery smile, my lip trembling.
I've got plenty that I could talk about, but we've been following a strict no-sleep regimen around here the better to keep up with the short-burst baby races and the long-distance speed-toddling and the free-style table climbing and all the other events that fill our napless days and I'm really only capable of sotto voce cursing and muttering and, for variety, threatening my husband. And then came the awkward silence...
Its riot coverage, however, could be characterized as the mutterings of someone having a nightmare yet somehow determined to control the terrible surreality of the dreamscape.
Taukat showed his agreement by muttering the words of a spell and conjuring a cloud of acid rain over the unsuspecting targets.
The mutterings about his leadership continued to grow.
He was muttering something to himself in that piping voice of his, and the wounded surprise in his voice brought home to me that he was just a child himself.
I can't help muttering under my breath, though, willing the hawk on.
With hushed mutterings and grumblings they all trooped down to the stables.
Next he waved mysteriously a few gold coins, then dropped twenty-one drops of cold water out of a jewelled shell, [Footnote: The conch, or chank shell] and finally, muttering something in Sanskrit, and placing in my hand a small silk bag containing a title of nobility and the number and description of the roods of lands pertaining to it, bade me rise, “Chow Khoon Crue Yai”! The English Governess at the Siamese Court
The image of a bunch of hairy, hoary sexagenarians sitting in their Speedos in a row of lawn chairs at a cottage, say, going all silent and snickery, muttering and bobbing their eyebrows up and down as one of their friends 'daughters sashays past in her bikini is so barf-tastic it almost triggers my gag reflex just thinking about it. The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed
They preach to their minions’ half-truths, falsities, and destructive examples that inflate egos, separate people of differing beliefs and life-styles, and they do so with a high and mighty commanding declaration that their mutterings are the truths that their congregation was heretofore denied. ...And God Said
Nobody wanted mutterings about crowd trouble besmirching the memory.
Without even having to strain his ears, he could overhear the girl muttering to herself in annoyance.
There were mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage rose higher and clearer. THE SUNLANDERS
Her face was red, fumes came from her head and she was muttering very strong and unedifying words under her breath that were peeling paint off of the walls.
Then he concluded by shaking his head and muttering, "Tough place. Christianity Today
At length, the preamble concluded, he began his work, first by stroking my legs, from the knees downwards, with the palm of his hand, muttering all the while, and then by applying his mouth, and sucking the parts affected, accompanying the operation by a most strange kind of purring or grunting. Letters on the Nicobar islands, their natural productions, and the manners, customs, and superstitions of the natives with an account of an attempt made by the Church of the United Brethren, to convert them to Christianity
Mutterings of the word "poor" and "rich" naturally create an image of insalubriousness versus opulence. Accra by Day & Night
After the carnival pageantry of the State of the Union, Rod's dismal complacencies come across like the mutterings of a crank trapped in an elevator. Is this the person you want to be listening to a year from now?
All I could hear was birdsong and the mutterings of passing people who largely observed the serene sanctity of the area. Times, Sunday Times
She replied so quietly that he could barely hear her voice muttering her name.
She began muttering things under her breath but gradually grew tired as well.
Sometimes I'd hear a melodic fragment or a texture, or it might sound like voices muttering in an unintelligible language.
He is a master of platitudinous nonsensical mutterings meted out in a muttonheaded masterly display of the obvious.
Don't be tempted to wear a cape or go around muttering about destiny. Times, Sunday Times
‘Little good-for-nothing,’ he keeps muttering.
Sam can't even muster the chutzpah to blast back at a heckler with the bile we know he can spit, instead muttering some lame babble.
The mutterings ceased when the ball split the posts and landed over the dead-ball line. Times, Sunday Times
He turned back to the stream and began to follow it westwards once again, still holding the bell and muttering complaints. ABHORSEN
And all the while from ahead, close by the moving lanthorn, came the musical _cling, cling, cling, cling_ of the mules 'bell, with the low muttering sound made by the doctor and Griggs as they entered into a conversation about the state of the country into which they were penetrating. The Peril Finders
My entry is still sat there, quietly muttering something about my job. The Sun
Soon after, they found Hazel sitting by a tree, muttering incoherent threats.
‘Hmmm 16 years ago… that's pretty far back, let's see… aha… wait a minute’ he started muttering some things to himself.
She kept muttering obscenities and burping loudly.
gentlefolk" followed Reynolds 'lantern towards the vicarage, and Mr. Thomas Reid, the conservative and melancholic sexton, put out the lights and locked the church doors, muttering a sour laudation of more primitive times, when "the gentlefolk minded their business. A Tale of a Lonely Parish
Most often it doesn't and he goes all sullen and broody, muttering about fussy neighbours and piling even more garden waste on the smoking heap.
Mutterings that it was all too good to be true started long before now and those who forewarned us can take a dubious comfort from these figures.
He was muttering on the telephone so I asked him to speak more clearly.
One imagines him muttering darkly all the way, vowing to do better. Times, Sunday Times
I sometimes learn my lines on public transport muttering them out loud to myself.
Frowning in irritation, she picked up the lost stitch and started over, muttering darkly under her breath as she did so. ‘Purl one, knit one, purl one.’
Muttering the few curse words she knew, Cielle kicked the trunk of a nearby tree.
A small girl with short bubblegum pink hair and red eyes runs out from the bushes and to me, wringing her hands nervously, and muttering, ‘Oh, no, oh, no, this cannot be good.’
It was sufficiently bizarre to see men and women in their late sixties and seventies tottering around the decks wearing eye patches, death's head do-rags, and plastic hooks while muttering, ‘Avast, matey!’
a youth player and barely a day goes by without at least some mutterings from the Spanish champions about how Fábregas is destined to return home. The Guardian World News
Right away," he called sheepishly, muttering, "Be back in a moment," to Flint before hurrying to the table. Flint, the King
I heard two more men muttering by the tailboards, found the driver's cab of the slabber, and lifted myself up. THE TARTAN RINGERS
No more biblish, no more tiresome polysyllabic nonsense, no more mundane middle-class mutterings.
He has been in the police force for nearly 40 years and the powers that be are muttering about the need to get rid of dead wood. Times, Sunday Times
Without any prompting from Pettitt, he was feverishly muttering snippets from his stump speech in the middle of the frantic gesturing.
Beth was feverish and fitful, tossing about beneath the sheets, her head thrashing from side to side, muttering inaudibly from time to time.
Clean-cut, in sharp suits, and with short hair at a time when that was unfashionable, they prowled around muttering into wires that protruded from their shirt cuffs.
” This she did several times, muttering to herself, “On the breath, dear child, on the breath,” in imitation of her speechcraft instructor, whom she greatly admired. Death of a Fool
After that I look at RTE's Six One News with Lee outside Leinster House speaking of "mutterings" against Kenny in Fine Gael. Irish Blogs
One imagines him muttering darkly all the way, vowing to do better. Times, Sunday Times
The governor, already on board, is bellowing at us, and several women are crossing themselves and muttering prayers.
There has been much muttering among the aggrieved franchisees about the possibility of legal action.
For a long time I thought that what she was muttering was in Hebrew, until I knew enough German to recognize the word unberufen, which literally means “not summoned up.” In the Valley of the Shadow
Oi, you at the back, stop muttering ‘no change there’ before I come over and bop you.
The mutterings about his actions will be a contentious sub-plot to this series. The Sun
Muttering to myself about the size of my purse, I pricked myself on a mechanical pencil tip.
This is easy to believe about one of the funniest comedians around… a man who has raised the bar for incoherent muttering and elevated rambling to a high art.
After the subtle shock wore off, everyone was muttering about interrupting the movie.
But he slowly recovered himself after some profane mutterings, reeled up the next flight of stairs, and finally deposited his well-soaked clay on the bed in his own room immediately over mine.
Most often it doesn't and he goes all sullen and broody, muttering about fussy neighbours and piling even more garden waste on the smoking heap.
He did not know whether the giant was plotting new deviltries or had been summoned away by that muttering voice, but he wasted no time in conjectures. The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian
‘I'll teach you,’ he kept muttering, though his murmurs were nearly indecipherable.
A Chinese protagonist who is actually likable, Moia Hsu comes complete with an ex-boyfriend who follows her, muttering, "" The capitalist pig was teaching her the habits of ruttish swine. '' Move Over, Suzie Wong
There the bus turned around and headed back towards town with the driver muttering about how much easier his route was before he had to start driving all the way out there just for two snot-nosed brats.
The man received the papers, while the crowd looked on, muttering in contemptuous undertones. Jacqueline of the Carrier-Pigeons
One of his opponents was last seen heading for the showers at Laem Chabang muttering obscenities under his breath.
As bloggers become to become mainstream and not just fringe lunatics muttering in tiny cabals, power will concentrate according to network power laws.
About him stood three priests, true shavelings, clean shorn and polled, who were muttering strange words to the devils out of a conjuring book.
May it be a long war, thinks I, watching her bouncing out of sight, and then my attention was taken by the major-domo, muttering the eternal "Pajalsta, excellence," and leading me up the broad, creaky staircase, along a turning passage, and finally halting at a broad door. The Sky Writer
The elderly ladies of the audience were muttering and tutting throughout.
I fell into the arms of the door opener, muttering brokenly of my need to see my friend.
By now, someone reading this is angrily muttering, but it teaches the kids discipline!
People lose their nerve in the middle of a sentence and walk off muttering, they sit and brood by themselves, and best yet, all the time, people are getting stupid drunk.
They skulk at the back, where portly men are eating prawn sandwiches and muttering.
When she closed her eyes, all she could find was darkness shot with red, distant mutterings, cries, and an appalling sense of dread. AFTERMATH
I get up muttering obscenities under my breath as I try to wake up my foot that has decided to fall asleep on me.
Yet did it quiver under the finger-tip caress in rhythmic vibrations that became whisperings and rustlings and mutterings of sound - but of sound so different; so elusively thin that it was shimmeringly sibilant; so mellow that it was maddening sweet, piping like an elfin horn, which last was just what Bassett decided would be like a peal from some bell of the gods reaching earthward from across space. THE RED ONE
Yet, for some reason, the tourists, students and foreign school trippers were all giving me a wide berth, as I performed a jogging slalom along the pavement, trying to avoid all the muddy puddles, while muttering to myself.
Blairy beasts are creeping from the night to wards the camp fire and behind dangerously glittering eyes fatty Falconer has started muttering about the lack of a vision. Burn Them With Ice
The others started to file out, muttering about him being a spoilsport.
She passed the orchestra, trudging back to Saint-Lys along the gravel drive, the two fat violinists stolidly smoking their Alsacian pipes, the harp-player muttering to the aged piper, the little biniou man from the Côte-d'Or, excited, mercurial, gesticulating at every step. Lorraine A romance
At that moment my father stalked impatiently through the door, muttering.
Jerome, muttering and dripping thick mud and rainwater, brought up the rear of this merry parade.
The big woman knelt down and gathered up Rose's books, muttering apologies in a deep, quiet voice.
He was still sleeping and appeared to be having a dream, for he was tossing and turning, and muttering something undistinguishable.
Meditation does not demand sitting cross-legged amidst candles and burning incense, muttering weird incantations.
He managed to nudge his partner, and together they rose, muttering in tones of voice too low and quiet for her to hear.
People began muttering under their breath as the moments went by and no one saw any danger.
Sighing heavily and muttering a few choice words about his lazy companion, he begrudgingly hauled her onto his back and piggybacked her all the way back to their apartment.
No more muttering 'night-night, darling' before deeply entering, er, the land of nod. Times, Sunday Times
While each had at least one interesting point to make, much of what was written had Filmbrain muttering unpleasantries under his breath, especially in reaction to their condescending view towards film bloggers.
Grabbing my arm, she began muttering an incantation that sounded a bit too similar to the one with which I had seen her geld a horse.
When hands-free phones were invented I rejoiced - no longer would onlookers spying my muttering think me an insane person.
She slipped the matching shoes onto her feet, muttering at the high heels.
You gotta be quick with that mouse to snag the best Web fares - and that has some people muttering about frustrating bait-and-switch tactics.
He just kept shivering and muttering incoherent fragments of distorted English.
Behind me, as I rang for the elevator, I heard muttering.
A soft noise came from inside, a quiet shuffling and a low muttering.
He rushed through the formalities of the event and arrived shortly afterwards on the South Bank ashen-faced, muttering: "I came as soon as I could. Scotland Yard's finest called to account over 'culture of collusion' with the press
She re-dressed herself, still muttering, and the big horse came over to her, shoving his head into her stomach.
We were dragged through to a cold room where Arabic voices could be heard muttering. Times, Sunday Times
When she motioned me over the kids began whispering, muttering that I must have been shoplifting or something.
It really is time this was addressed and also recognised that white people are very often the victims of racial bullying - if no more than 'snidey' under-the-breath mutterings that are offensive and hurtful. Latest news from the public and voluntary sectors, including health, children, local government and social care, plus SocietyGuardian jobs | guardian.co.uk

How To Use Muttering In A Sentence

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