dial. and U.S. Also teter. [var. of TITTER v. to totter, move unsteadily.]
1. intr. a. To see-saw.
1846. Worcester, Teetor..., to seesaw on a balanced plank, as children, for amusement. (U.S.)
1847. Webster, Teeter, v. (prov. Eng. titter, to tremble, to seesaw…), to seesaw. (U.S.)
b. To move like a see-saw; to sway from side to side; to move unsteadily; esp. of a person or animal, to walk with a swaying motion; to balance oneself unsteadily on alternate feet. So teeter-totter, teter-totter.
c. 1850. E. G. Paige, Serm., I. 184. You tip and teeter about, thinking that you excite the admiration of all.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, ix. (1886), 184. The peetweets … ‘teter’ along its stony shores all summer.
1888. J. W. Riley, in Voice (N.Y.), 21 June. Turn to the lane where we used to ‘teeter-totter,’ Printing little foot-palms in the mellow mold.
1892. E. McGaffey, Redwing, 1, in Poems Gun & Rod, 131.
| On a bulrush stalk a blackbird swung | |
| All in the sun and the sunshine weather, | |
| Teetered and scolded there as he hung | |
| O’er the maze of the swamp-woof’s tangled tether. |
1904. Winston, Churchill Crossing, II. xiv. 422. I felt the ground teetering under my feet.
1904. in Eng. Dial. Dict. (Essex), A watchmaker said of a wheel of which the pivot was bent, ‘It teeters.’
2. trans. To move (anything) with a see-saw motion; to tip up and down, to tilt.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 30. All the while ‘teetering’ its body, and performing odd, nervous antics.
1906. Daily Chron., 14 Feb., 3/3. The author escaped the charge of a rhinoceros by the animal stepping on the same log on which Mr. Whitney was standing, and thus ‘teetering’ him aside.
1907. Black Cat, June, 36. As he teetered the fretting baby on his knee.
3. Comb. Teeter-tail, the American sandpiper: = TEETER sb. 2.
Hence Teetering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., xxxv. Settled herself … on the back seat of the creaking, teetering old stage on the way to Poganuc.
1884. Century Mag., Jan., 359/1. The steady rolling and teetering of the ship.
1887. C. C. Abbott, Waste-land Wanderings, iv. 109. [A cat-bird] hopped with that teetering of the tail that is a feature of sandpipers and water-thrushes.
