Tot·ter v. i. [imp. & p. p. Tottered p. pr. & vb. n. Tottering.]
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.”
2. To shake; to reel; to lean; to waver.
Troy nods from high, and totters to her fall. --Dryden.
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tottering
adj 1: unsteady in gait as from infirmity or old age; "a tottering
skeleton of a horse"; "a tottery old man" [syn: tottery]
2: (of structures or institutions) having lost stability;
failing or on the point of collapse; "a tottering empire"