totter

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“
For Randy Willt, leading his dogs through tire jumps andacross the teeter-totter is about the fun.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To sway as if about to fall.
  2. intransitive verb To appear about to collapse: an empire that had begun to totter.
  3. intransitive verb To walk unsteadily or feebly; stagger.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Then the whole top-heavy structure of American capitalism began to totter, and –poof!—inequality all but vanished from the public discourse.
  • And when the structurefinally began to totter, they evaporated. —  Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf: Causes of the Collapse
  • A teeter-totter, weighted on each end by commodities that Zuniga believed linked. —  Asimov's Science Fiction, April 2002
  • "Like I'm on a teeter-totter, and every time my toes touch solid ground, a bully at the other end hunkers down and up I go again." —  Ledbetter, Suzann - North of Clever
  • I've been reading about how the British Isles are like a teeter-totter (Scotland coming up, England sinking for now), how they get the bubbles in Aero chocolate bars, and how fast the wind has to be blowing to keep the mosquitoes from biting you. —  Wanderin' Weeta (With Waterfowl and Weeds)
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This word has been looked up 122 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

shaky ·  frail ·  rickety ·  decrepit ·  wooden ·  stagger ·  precarious ·  gaunt ·  wobbly ·  puny ·  infirm ·  weather-beaten

Used in the same contextWord Family

totter:   tottering
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English toteren, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English toteren, totren, older *tolteren (later English dial. tolter, struggle, flounder, Scots tolter, adjective, unstable), from Anglo-Saxon tealtrian, totter, vacillate (=D. touteren, tremble; cf. touter, a swing), from tealt, unstable; cf. tilt. For the relation of totter to tolter, cf. tatter (totter) as related to *talter.
 

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/ˈtɑtər/
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