teeter

See also: Teeter

English

Etymology

Alteration of titter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtiːtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtitəɹ/, [ˈtʰiɾɚ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

teeter (third-person singular simple present teeters, present participle teetering, simple past and past participle teetered)

1. (intransitive) To tilt back and forth on an edge.

   He teetered on the brink of the precipice.

   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 24 January 2025:

     The concrete floors of B2B sheds were already being built to an exacting degree of flatness, calibrated using lasers, so that forklifts would not teeter while lifting pallets to the highest shelves.

   • 2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 25 August 2023:

     This is not a land of blowouts. It’s a middle ground, and that’s reflected in voter registration rolls. Nearly 2.6 million North Carolinians declare themselves unaffiliated, while just over 2.4 million identify as Democrats and just under 2.2 million as Republicans. We don’t tilt. We teeter.

2. (intransitive) To totter (move unsteadily).
   • 1985 December 28, Nora Janeway, “Women's Pentagon Action Meets for the Last Time”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 24, page 12:

     How many other organizations have sprung up amidst apparently unlimited energy, been the focus of a great deal of activism and education, and then begun to diminish? Some teeter along for a long time even though their base of support seems to have eroded; some metamorphose into something else entirely. Others die, and their death may be more or less peaceful, more or less guilt-riddled.

3. (figuratively) To be indecisive; to hesitate.

   We teetered on the fence about buying getaway tickets and missed the opportunity.

4. (figuratively) To be close to becoming a typically negative situation.

   Despite appearances, the firm was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Derived terms

• teeterer
• teeter-tail
• teeter-totter
• teeterboard

Translations

tilt back and forth on an edge

Catalan: titubejar (ca), trontollar (ca) Czech: kolísat (cs) (na hraně) Dutch: wankelen (nl), waggelen (nl) Finnish: hoippua, horjua (fi) French: basculer (fr), tituber (fr), branler (fr) Galician: cambalear (gl) German: schwanken (de), wankeln (de), sich winden, taumeln (de) Maori: tīkokikoki, tūkokikoki, tūretireti Polish: chwiać się (pl) impf, kolebać się impf Portuguese: cambalear (pt), vacilar (pt) Russian: кача́ться (ru) (kačátʹsja), колеба́ться (ru) (kolebátʹsja) Spanish: tambalearse (es) Swedish: vingla (sv)

to be indecisive

Bulgarian: нерешителен съм (nerešitelen sǎm) Czech: váhat (cs) impf Dutch: weifelen (nl) Galician: titubear (gl), vacilar (gl) Polish: wahać się (pl) impf, nie móc się zdecydować impf Portuguese: titubear (pt), vacilar (pt) Swedish: vela (sv)

Noun

teeter (plural teeters)

1. (Canada, US) A teeter-totter or seesaw.

Anagrams

• terete