ppl. a. Obs. [Orig. a variant of TATTERED, and used in that sense (cf. Norw. dial. totra rag); subsequently associated with TOTTER v., and more or less assimilated in sense.]
1. = TATTERED 2, 3.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 1357/1. He … was not so disguised in hys tottered attyre, but that hys countenaunce gaue signification [etc.].
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 37. A hundred and fiftie totter’d Prodigalls, lately come from Swine-keeping.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 118. [They] have their wings tottered and torn.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xvii. The ragged and tottred Equipage of her Person.
2. Of a building or a ship: Battered and shaken, rendered ruinous and liable to fall; in a tottering condition.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 173. A tottered Tower doth challenge regard for the waste receiued in that places protection.
1649–50. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 221. Carpenter pulling down ye tottered seiling over ye East end of the Chancell.
1689. Sherlock, Disc. Death (1775), 26. Merciless waves even overwhelm his tottered and decayed vessel.
1808. Scott, Marm., IV. xi. Thy turrets rude, and tottered Keep, Have been the minstrel’s loved resort.
3. Made to totter, shaken, reeling. rare.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XV. (1626), 317. The hot horses … O’r ragged rocks the totterd charriot driue: While I to curb their furie vainly striue.
