Adjacent Words

teeter definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end [syn: seesaw, teeter, teeter-totter, teetertotter, teeterboard, tilting board, dandle board] v
1: move unsteadily, with a rocking motion [syn: teeter, seesaw, totter]

Merriam Webster's

I. intransitive verb Etymology: Middle English titeren to totter, reel; akin to Old High German zittar?n to shiver Date: 1844 1. a. to move unsteadily ; wobble b. waver, vacillate <teetered on the brink of bankruptcy> 2. seesaw II. noun Date: 1860 seesaw 2b

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. 1 totter; stand or move unsteadily. 2 hesitate; be indecisive. Phrases and idioms: teeter on the brink (or edge) be in imminent danger (of disaster etc.). Etymology: var. of dial. titter

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Teeter Tee"ter, v. i. & t. [imp. & p. p. Teetered; p. pr. & vb. n. Teetering.] [Prov. E. titter to tremble, to seesaw; cf. Icel. titra to tremble, OHG. zittar[=o]n, G. zittern.] To move up and down on the ends of a balanced plank, or the like, as children do for sport; to seesaw; to titter; to titter-totter. [U. S.] [The bobolink] alit upon the flower, and teetered up and down. --H. W. Beecher.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(teeters, teetering, teetered) 1. Teeter is used in expressions such as teeter on the brink and teeter on the edge to emphasize that something seems to be in a very unstable situation or position. Three of the hotels are in receivership, and others are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy... His voice teetered on the edge of hysteria. VERB: V on n, V on n [emphasis] 2. If someone or something teeters, they shake in an unsteady way, and seem to be about to lose their balance and fall over. Hyde shifted his weight and felt himself teeter forward, beginning to overbalance... VERB: V adv/prep

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. [U.S.] Seesaw, titter, titter-totter, tetter-totter.

Moby Thesaurus

Lissajous figure, alternate, alternation, back and fill, back-and-forth, balance, battledore and shuttlecock, change, come and go, coming and going, cower, dither, dodder, ebb and flow, equivocate, falter, flounder, fluctuate, flux and reflux, go through phases, halt, hitch and hike, limp, lurch, metronome, oscillate, oscillator, pass and repass, pendulate, pendulum, quiver, reciprocate, reciprocation, rhythmic play, ride and tie, ring the changes, rock, rocker, rocking chair, rocking stone, seesaw, seesawing, shake, shift, shilly-shally, shuffle, shuttle, shuttlecock, sine wave, stagger, stammer, stumble, sway, swing, teeter-totter, teeter-tottering, teeterboard, teetering, teetery-bender, tergiversate, to-and-fro, topple, totter, tottering, tremble, turn, ups and downs, vacillate, vary, vibrator, waver, wax and wane, weave, wibble-wabble, wigwag, wobble, zigzag