tottering
[tot-er-ing]
- walking unsteadily or shakily.
- lacking security or stability; threatening to collapse; precarious: a tottering empire.
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Origin of tottering
totter
[tot-er]
- to walk or go with faltering steps, as if from extreme weakness.
- to sway or rock on the base or ground, as if about to fall: The tower seemed to totter in the wind. The government was tottering.
- to shake or tremble: a load that tottered.
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- the act of tottering; an unsteady movement or gait.
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Origin of totter
1150–1200; Middle English toteren to swing < ?
Synonyms
See more synonyms for totter on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tottering
Contemporary Examples
He is vividly, fearfully aware of how much worse things might get than the rotten, tottering system he upholds.
The bankrupt ones are outlined in red, while the tottering ones have orange outlines.
Egypt is tottering between rule by Islamists and the military.
Bags had grown to this enormous monstrosity, wildly unfunctional, akin to tottering around on seven-inch heels.
And in all the rest of the world, half a dozen old men, if so many, tottering toward their graves.
Historical Examples
Our Union is tottering to its foundation, and slavery is the cause.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
I went downstairs trembling, tottering, and my teeth chattering.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
It had taken this news from the harbor to bring him tottering, crashing down.
The HarborErnest Poole
He was not about to throw himself headlong from the summit of the tottering wall.
Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens
The commercial and moral fabric of European civilization is tottering.
The Paper Moneys of EuropeFrancis W. Hirst
totter
- to walk or move in an unsteady manner, as from old age
- to sway or shake as if about to fall
- to be failing, unstable, or precarious
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- the act or an instance of tottering
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Word Origin
C12: perhaps from Old English tealtrian to waver, and Middle Dutch touteren to stagger
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tottering
totter
v.
c.1200, "swing to and fro," perhaps from a Scandinavian source (cf. dialectal Norwegian totra "to quiver, shake"). Meaning "stand or walk with shaky, unsteady steps" is from c.1600. Related: Tottered; tottering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper