Faltered and made terms badly (9)
I believe the answer is:
stammered
'faltered' is the definition.
('stammer' can be a synonym of 'falter')
'made terms badly' is the wordplay.
'badly' is an anagram indicator (letters in the wrong order).
'made'+'terms'='madeterms'
'madeterms' with letters rearranged gives 'STAMMERED'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for stammered that I've seen before include "struggled to speak" , "Spoke haltingly" .)