totter

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   move without being stable, as if threatening to fall

   The drunk tottered over to our table.

2. 2
   verb

   To walk, move or stand unsteadily or falteringly; threatening to fall.

   The baby tottered from the table to the chair.

3. 3
   verb

   To be on the brink of collapse.

   […]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.

4. 4
   verb

   move unsteadily, with a rocking motion

5. 5
   verb

   walk unsteadily

6. 6
   verb

   To collect junk or scrap.

7. 7
   noun

   An unsteady movement or gait.

8. 8
   noun

   A rag and bone man.

Etymology

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.