teetotum
Americannoun
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any small top spun with the fingers.
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a kind of die having four sides, each marked with a different initial letter, spun with the fingers in an old game of chance.
noun
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a spinning top bearing letters of the alphabet on its four sides
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such a top used as a die in gambling games
Etymology
Origin of teetotum
1710–20; earlier T totum, alteration of totum name of toy (< Latin tōtum, neuter of tōtus all) by prefixing its initial letter, which appeared on one side of the toy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Though no disturbance was reported last week at Brooklyn's Evergreen Cemetery, by rights Anthony Comstock should have been spinning like a teetotum in his grave.
From Time Magazine Archive
The bow is caught by the current and the steamer then rapidly "spun round" by its swiftness, almost as though on a teetotum, the engines meanwhile backing up.
From A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River by Cumberland, Barlow
After supper Edna and Louis played quietly with a queer old-fashioned game, called "The War of the Revolution;" it was played by using a teetotum and counters.
From A Dear Little Girl by Blanchard, Amy Ella
The Colonel wheeled round on his heels like a teetotum.
From Between the Dark and the Daylight by Marsh, Richard
It spun round and round like a teetotum, then fell over to one side with a crash.
From A Hero of Li?ge by Strang, Herbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
