sputter

As a result, he dominated news coverage, looking bolder and badder than ever and leaving the Democrats looking like sputtering, defensive, fact-checking, umbrage-filled morality police.

"A great deal of the anti-bureaucracy sentiment is associated with right-wing populism, which often sputters between anarchism and fascism."

Asked about his plans to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, Trump sputtered lamely about “concepts of a plan.”

US economic growth, which had been bouncing back from pandemic disruptions, sputtered.

But their fortunes are not just explained by their companies successes - their rivals have made less in a year in which China's economy has sputtered.