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
In Polynesia the coco-nut is spun like a teetotum to discover a thief.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 5 "Dinard" to "Dodsworth" by Various
He reached down, seized a hind leg and whirling him around like a teetotum, sent him flying into the bushes, whence Chum launched again upon him, like a catapult.
From The Valiants of Virginia by Rives, Hallie Erminie
The instant that everybody is in the boat it is shot out into the water like an arrow from a bow, and brought head around, like a teetotum.
From The Land of Fire A Tale of Adventure by Reid, Mayne
Mrs. Verstage's brain spun like a teetotum; her heart turned cold.
From The Broom-Squire by Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
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.
