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were tottering

  • past progressive
    of totter.
    totter
    verb (used without object)
    to walk or go with faltering, unsteady steps.

Example Sentences

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Old empires were tottering, and world powers were vying for position.

From Washington Post Dec. 1, 2022

When skipper Daniel Vettori was out in the 42nd over, the Kiwis were tottering on 158-5, but the in-form Guptill fired 11 fours in his 80 from 154 balls.

From BBC Feb. 15, 2010

Under the onset of the Nazi conquests the walls of the whole known world were tottering.

From Time Magazine Archive

After the Wilde-Douglas episode, Beardsley gradually made a comeback, but his career and life were tottering toward an end.

From Time Magazine Archive

She hastened to the boat; she did not feel that her heart was beating; that her feet were tottering; that her senses were threatening to fail her.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 02 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Kuno Francke