tottering

[tot-er-ing]

adjective

1. walking unsteadily or shakily.

2. lacking security or stability; threatening to collapse; precarious.

   a tottering empire.

Other Word Forms

• totteringly adverb
• untottering adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tottering¹

totter + -ing ²

Example Sentences

“This is . . . an unfortunate misunderstanding,” she said, tottering.

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He regularly held Saturday morning sessions with experts on the tottering Soviet empire and led the George H.W.

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The two boys, aged 2 and 4, romped through the labyrinth of La Soledad, under lines of drying laundry, past deliverymen pushing stacked handcarts and carpenters hammering away at tottering structures.

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Hope as a concept would not have worked for Biden, whose age and mental acuity were in question and who seemed to be tottering toward the election with little wind in his political sails.

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The singer’s sweeping eyeliner, tottering heels and disheveled beehive are still instantly recognizable, 13 years after her death.

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