flutter in the dovecote en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˌflʌtə ɪn‿ðə ˈdʌvkɒt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (US) audio
- /ˌflʌtɚ ɪn‿ðə ˈdʌvkɑt/ (General-American)
- [-ɾɚ-] (General-American)
Etymology
Probably from flutter the dovecote, possibly from Coriolanus (written c. 1608–1609; published 1623) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Act V, scene vi (spelling modernized): “[L]ike an eagle in a dovecote, I / Fluttered your Volcians in Corioles.”
Meanings
-
(idiomatic) A disturbance, usually one caused within a group of people who are generally placid and unexcited.
I further argued that the principal cause for the political deadlock that persisted for thirty years after the guns fell silent was Israeli intransigence rather than Arab intransigence. The appearance of the first wave of revisionist studies excited a great deal of interest and controversy in the media and more than a flutter in the academic dovecote.
2001 November 15, Avi Shlaim, “Israel Confronts Its Past”, in St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (Conflict, Justice, and Collective Memories: How Countries Deal with Difficult Pasts [lecture series]), archived from the original on 25 Sep 2006:
Relateds
flutter the dovecot · flutter the dovecotes · put the cat among the pigeons · flutter the dovecote · kerfuffle
Translations (4)
pl zamieszanie (disturbance, usually one caused within a group of people who are generally placid and unexcited — see also disturbance) · fi hälinä (disturbance, usually one caused within a group of people who are generally placid and unexcited — see also disturbance) · ru переполо́х в курятнике (disturbance, usually one caused within a group of people who are generally placid and unexcited — see also disturbance) · nl opwinding (disturbance, usually one caused within a group of people who are generally placid and unexcited — see also disturbance)