totter Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb move without being stable, as if threatening to fall
    • The drunk man tottered over to our table
  2. verb walk unsteadily
    waddle; paddle; coggle; dodder; toddle.
    • small children toddle
  3. verb move unsteadily, with a rocking motion
    teeter; seesaw.

WordNet

Tot"ter intransitive verb
Etymology
Probably for older tolter; cf. AS. tealtrian to totter, vacillate. Cf.Tilt to incline, Toddle, Tottle, Totty.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tottered ; present participle & verbal noun Tottering
Definitions
  1. To shake so as to threaten a fall; to vacillate; to be unsteady; to stagger; as,an old man totters with age. "As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence." Ps. lxii. 3.
  2. To shake; to reel; to lean; to waver.
    Troy nods from high, and totters to her fall. Dryden.

Webster 1913