See Also: totter(1)(dictionary)
totter(2)(dictionary)
totter(dictionary)
totter(dictionary)
teeter-totter(dictionary)
titter-totter(dictionary)
teeter-totter(dictionary)

totter (iou)



totter verb. ME.
[Middle Dutch touteren swing (so Dutch touter noun) from Old Saxon, corresp. to Old English tealtrian totter, stagger.]
verb intrans. Move or swing to and fro or up and down; spec. be hanged; fig. waver, vacillate. ME-M17.
verb intrans. Rock or shake as if about to overbalance or collapse; (of an institution, government, etc.) be insecure or about to collapse. Formerly also, tremble. LME.
U. Sinclair Whose delicatessen store was tottering on the brink of ruin.
verb intrans. Walk with unsteady steps or with difficulty; move or go shakily or feebly; reel, stagger. E17.
W. Black A tottering white-headed old man. V. Cronin He tottered back to bed and..that afternoon he died.
verb trans. Cause to shake to and fro, rock; make unstable. Cf. TOTTERED 2. Only in 17.
totterer noun E18.
totteringly adverb in a tottering manner M17.
tottery adjective given to tottering; shaky, unsteady: M19.