totter

Multiple Entries:
  totter    tot  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
totter/ˈtɒtə(r)/

▶verb

• 1 move in an unsteady way.

• 2 (usu. as adj. tottering) (of a building) shake or rock as if about to collapse.

• 3 be insecure or about to fail.

▶noun a tottering gait.

– derivatives
totterer noun,
tottery adjective.

– origin ME: from MDu. touteren ‘to swing’ (the original sense in Engl.).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tot1

▶noun

• 1 a very young child.

• 2 chiefly Brit. a small drink of spirits.

– origin C18 (orig. dial.): of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tot2

▶verb (tots, totting, totted) (tot something up) chiefly Brit.

• 1 add up numbers or amounts.

• 2 accumulate something over time.

– origin C18: from archaic tot ‘set of figures to be added up’, abbrev. of total or of L. totum ‘the whole’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tot3

▶verb (tots, totting, totted) (usu. as noun totting) Brit. informal salvage saleable items from dustbins or rubbish heaps.

– derivatives
totter noun.

– origin C19: from sl. tot ‘bone’, of unknown origin.