Forms: 4–5 totre, 5 totyr, totoure, 6– totter. [f. TOTTER v. Cf. Flem., Du. (and WFris.) touter in sense 1.]
† 1. A swing; a board suspended by two ropes, on which a person sits and is swung to and fro.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 387. Whan men [fel] of þe totres and were i-herte sore, it was ordeyned among hem þat images i-liche to þe bodies schulde be sette in þe totros, and meue and totery in stede of hem þat were a-falle. Þat game is cloped ocillum in Latyn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 498/1. Totyr, or myry totyr, chylderys game…, oscillum.
1468. Medulla Gram., Oscillum, genus ludi, cum funis suspenditur a trabe in quo pueri et puelle sedentes impelluntur huc et illuc,—a totoure. Petaurus, quidam ludus, a totre.
1483. Cath. Angl., 390/2. A mery Totyr (A. A Totyr), petaurus, & cetera.
1552. Huloet, Totter playe, betwene two bell ropes to tottre to and fro, petaurum.
2. The action, or an act, of tottering; wavering, oscillation; an unsteady or shaky movement or gait as of one ready to fall.
1747. E. Poston, Pratler, I. 1. My Mind is so on the Totter between For and Against.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 109, ¶ 8. I … had his bend in my shoulders, and his totter in my gait.
1830. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 35/2. He seemed all of a totter and tremble.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, II. iv. Without raising an arm to balance her body, without a totter or a slip.
3. attrib. and Comb. (or from the verb-stem), as totter-arse, † (a) the game of see-saw; = TITTER-TOTTER 1; (b) one who totters (dial.); totter-grass, quaking-grass, Briza media, or sometimes another grass with slender stalk; totter-headed a., light-headed, frivolous, changeful; totter-kneed a., yielding, ‘weak-kneed.’
1611. Cotgr., Baccoler, to play at titter-totter, or at *totter-arse; to ride the wild Mare; as children who sitting vpon both ends of a long Pole, or Timber-log (supported only in the middle) lift one another vp and downe.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v., I ant a-zeed no such two double totterarse ’is longful time.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 198. And *totter-grass, in many a trembling knot.
1909. Spectator, 10 July, 48/2. The ox-eye daisies white among the totter-grass and sorrel.
1662. Petty, Taxes, ii. § 14. The things which cause animosities among the *totter-headed multitude.
1887. G. Meredith, Ballads & Poems, Whimper of Sympathy. The feelings of the *totterknee’d.
Totter, sb.2: see TOT sb.5
