atotter

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ totter.

Adjective

atotter (comparative more atotter, superlative most atotter)

1. In the act of tottering.
   • 1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN, page 67:

     The following day on the track south they began to encounter small ragged caravans of migrant traders headed toward the northern border. Brown and weathered men with burros three or four in tandem atotter with loads of candelilla or furs or goathides or coils of handmade rope fashioned out of lechugilla or the fermented drink called sotol decanted into drums and cans and strapped onto packframes made of treelimbs.

   • 1999, Robert Wrigley, Reign of Snakes:

     The nest breast wobbles in the westerly wind, the day is a grave, its eight black legs atotter under the pall.

   • 2004, Alan Goldfein, Europe's Macadam, America's Tar, page 63:

     We find it hard to comprehend that while America's major airlines are tottering on bankruptcy's edge-- with United already bankrupt (and welching on pensions) and Delta and American atotter-- Europe's big airlines remain financially healthy.