tottering Meaning, Definition & Usage

1. verb move without being stable, as if threatening to fall
   totter.
   
   • The drunk man tottered over to our table
2. verb walk unsteadily
   totter; waddle; paddle; coggle; dodder; toddle.
   
   • small children toddle
3. verb move unsteadily, with a rocking motion
   totter; teeter; seesaw.
   
4. adjective satellite unsteady in gait as from infirmity or old age
   tottery.
   
   • a tottering skeleton of a horse
   • a tottery old man
5. adjective satellite (of structures or institutions) having lost stability; failing or on the point of collapse
   
   • a tottering empire

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