a. Obs. [OE. tealt adj. (whence tealtian, tealtrian, to be unsteady, shake, totter); app. not represented in the cognate languages.] Unsteady, insecure, shaky; fig. unreliable, precarious, uncertain. Hence † Tealte adv., insecurely.
a. 1000. Runic Poem, xxi. (Gr.). ʓif hi sculun neðan on nacan tealtum, and hi sæyða swiðe breʓað.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom., xxx. (N.), 149. Swa tealte syndon eorðan welan. Ibid., I. 273. Hu læne and hu lyðre þis lif is,… hu tealt.
c. 1315. Shoreham, i. 231. For ȝef þat water his kende lest, Þat cristning stant te tealte.
