- present participle of totter.
tottering
Americanadjective
-
walking unsteadily or shakily.
-
lacking security or stability; threatening to collapse; precarious.
a tottering empire.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tottering
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.
Television and social media were filled with scenes of toppled and damaged buildings, including entire apartment blocks that appeared to be tottering as desperate residents camped out on the streets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
But just as the left-hander was getting going, Starc pounced again, trapping him lbw for 21 to leave England tottering on 33-2.
From Barron's ● Nov. 21, 2025
He regularly held Saturday morning sessions with experts on the tottering Soviet empire and led the George H.W.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
The singer’s sweeping eyeliner, tottering heels and disheveled beehive are still instantly recognizable, 13 years after her death.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
As it skids down the steep, irregular terrain in fits and starts, the mass of ice splinters into a jumble of huge, tottering blocks called seracs, some as large as office buildings.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
