Totter Meaning
/ˈtɒtə/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo walk, move or stand unsteadily or falteringly; threatening to fall.
verbTo be on the brink of collapse.
Sentence Examples
The old building began to totter after the small earthquake.
To totter means to move in a very unsteady way as if about to fall.
Tom and Mary were playing on the teeter-totter.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
After drinking too much, he began to ____ and nearly fell over.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baby began to ____ as he took his very first steps toward his mother's arms.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated."
— 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
"[…]the folly of this Iland, they ſay there's but fiue vpon this Iſle ; we are three of them, if th' other two be brain'd like vs, the State totters."
— 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 11:
"By the latter part of 1848, the throne of Hudson the Railway King who had been called in in 1845 as a superman to save the Eastern Counties Railway, was tottering to its fall, [...]."
— 1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 533:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After drinking too much, he began to ____ and nearly fell over.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baby began to ____ as he took his very first steps toward his mother's arms.