Variant or dialectal spelling; typically refers to making someone less likely to do something by creating fear or doubt (deterring).
Variant of 'deterring,' from deter (from Latin deterrere, to frighten away) plus -ing; this spelling is non-standard in modern English.
This non-standard spelling appears in older texts and some dialects, showing how English spelling hasn't always been standardized—printers and scribes sometimes chose 'detering' over 'deterring' well into the 20th century.
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