c1475 (c1445) R. Pecock Donet (1921) 197 (MED) And bi so moche I mai þe bettir trowe þat such..doom and jugement schal be ȝouun vpon ȝoure..bokis bi how moche I haue herd such motryng long eer and bifore þis present daie.

?c1500 Digby Plays 59 Þat..ony moteryng aȝens me make with malynacyon.

a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 52/2 Yet began there here & there..some maner of muttering amonge the people.

?1548 J. Bale Comedy Thre Lawes Nature iv. sig. Evij^v The lorde doth not regarde, Your mangy mutterynge.

1613 W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals I. ii. 44 The roaring voice of windes..Nor all the muttring of the sullen waues.

1668 S. Pepys Diary 17 Feb. (1976) IX. 74 Some mutterings I did hear..of dissolveing the Parliament.

1710 W. Hume Sacred Succession 287 Stretches, or Mutterings, or Titubations of Charity are not to be argued from.

1768 H. Brooke Fool of Quality III. xvi. 178 I heard secret treadings and mutterings.

1816 J. Austen Emma III. vii. 119 Her mutterings were chiefly to her husband; and he murmured, in reply, ‘Very true, my love, very true.’

1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. v. 468 The mutterings of discontent had developed into plain open treason.

1904 A. R. Whitham Epist. Consolations i. 10 Already the mutterings of the distant storm might be heard.

1971 Guardian 14 Jan. 1/3 There may be some feminine muttering that in promoting the ‘Woman's Guardian’ we are perpetuating the idea of the female ghetto.

1986 New Yorker 21 July 11 (advt.) There are mutterings of forthcoming government regulations that may limit the size and shape..of luggage you may be permitted to take aboard a plane.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 112 Let muttring Mutius take heede least he be serued with the same sawce Virgil requited Bauius and Meuius.

1592 Countess of Pembroke tr. R. Garnier Antonius i Nought heard but hideous noise of muttring troupes.

1664 N. Ingelo Bentivolio & Urania: 2nd Pt. vi. 251 The muttering Fiends obey'd.

1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 266. ¶2 In a muttering Voice, as if between Soliloquy and speaking out.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. xiii. 304 He..repeated, in a muttering Voice, ‘To be sure, Sir, your Knowledge may be superior to mine in some Things’. View more context for this quotation

1811 A. Liddiard Sgelaighe 27 How dread is the gloom!—awful—silent—and deep—As the muttering storm when it sinks into sleep.

1842 J. Wilson Recreations Christopher North II. 285 The muttering thunder seems to have changed its place.

1885 Expositor 1 Sept. 191 We are no muttering mystery-mongers.

1917 T. S. Eliot Love Song J. Alfred Prufrock in Prufrock & Other Observ. 9 Certain half-deserted streets The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels.

1954 J. Corbett Temple Tiger 13 In a low muttering voice he cursed the vultures who..had left their musky smell on the ground they had fouled.

1993 Hemispheres June 49/1 Gazing at the..muttering down-and-outers.