Link Centre Dictionary

totter

tot·ter

UK/ˈtɒtə/ US/ˈtɑtɚ/ fairly common

verb

1.

move without being stable, as if threatening to fall

  • “The drunk man tottered over to our table”
2.

walk unsteadily

  • “small children toddle”
Synonyms
3.

move unsteadily, with a rocking motion

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English totren, toteren, from earlier *tolteren (compare dialectal English tolter (“to struggle, flounder”); Scots tolter (“unstable, wonky”)), from Old English tealtrian (“to totter, vacillate”), from Proto-Germanic *taltrōną, a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *taltōną (“to sway, dangle, hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”). Cognate with Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), Norwegian dialectal totra (“to quiver, shake”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Related to tilt.

Phrases

  • St Totteringham's Day

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.