Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Unsteady and likely to fall or collapse: Describing something, especially a structure or an institution, that is weak, unstable, and appears to be on the verge of falling down or failing completely.
   • Moving in an unsteady, shaky manner: Describing the movement of a person or animal, typically due to weakness, old age, or infirmity, characterized by a lack of balance and stability.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:
  • The tottering old barn was finally demolished for safety reasons.
  • After the scandal, the company's reputation was left in a tottering state.
  • The toddler took a few tottering steps before falling into her mother's arms.
  • He walked with a tottering gait, leaning heavily on his cane.

Advanced Usage

• Used figuratively to describe abstract concepts: "Tottering" can describe systems, governments, or economies that are unstable and near collapse.
  • The tottering alliance between the two political parties could not withstand the new crisis.
• Used to emphasize extreme fragility: The word often implies a visible and alarming degree of instability.
  • She rescued the tottering stack of books just before it toppled over.

Variants and Related Words

• Totter (verb): To move in a shaky, unsteady way; to sway as if about to fall.
  • The old man tottered across the room.
• Tottery (adjective): Another adjective form with essentially the same meaning as "tottering," describing unsteadiness.
  • He rose to his feet on tottery legs.

Synonyms

• Unsteady: Not firmly fixed, supported, or balanced.
• Faltering: Losing strength or momentum; moving unsteadily.
• Teetering: Moving unsteadily as if about to fall; being in a state of uncertain balance.
• Rickety: (Of a structure or piece of furniture) poorly made and likely to collapse.
• Wobbly: Tending to move unsteadily from side to side.

Related Phrases

• On its last legs: Very weak or near failure or collapse. (This idiom is a close conceptual synonym for the institutional sense of "tottering").
  • The tottering regime was on its last legs.
• Shaky ground: An unstable or uncertain position. (This idiom relates to the figurative use of "tottering").
  • The theory rests on tottering foundations; it's on very shaky ground.

Adjective

1. (of structures or institutions) having lost stability; failing or on the point of collapse
   • a tottering empire
2. unsteady in gait as from infirmity or old age
   • a tottering skeleton of a horse
   • a tottery old man