| 释义 |
titter-totter, n. (adv.) Now dial.|ˈtɪtəˈtɒtə(r)|
Also 9 titter-a-tauter, titter-cum-totter, etc.: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
[Reduplication from stem of titter v.2 or totter v.]
1. The pastime of see-saw. Also, a see-saw.
1530Palsgr. 282/1 Tytter totter, a play for chyldre, balenchoeres. 1607R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 266 He played with a little boy at titter-totter. 1611in Cotgr. s.v. Hausse. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. i. §21 We may add another pastime well known with us by the younger part of the community, and called Titter-Totter. 1846Worcester, Tetter-totter [erroneously referred to Strutt]. 1887W. Rye Norfolk Broads xi. 95 We..tried quoits, and ‘tittem-a-tauter’, as the natives call the pastime of see-saw.
†2. One who totters or reels. Obs.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Titter-totter, who is upon the Reel, at every jog, or Blast of Wind. 1785Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Titter tatter, one reeling, and ready to fall at the least touch.
B. adv. In a tottering manner; unsteadily; also fig. hesitatingly, waveringly.
1725Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 35 Don't stand titter, totter, first standing upon one Foot and then upon another. 1762Churchill Ghost Poems 1767 II. 85 Having, as usual, said his pray'rs, Go titter, totter, to the stairs. 1828Craven Gloss., Titter-totter, in a wavering state, on the balance. 1889N.W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Titter-totter, (1) in a state of unstable equilibrium; (2) in hesitation of mind, or wavering.
Hence ˈtitter-ˈtotter, etc. v., intr. to see-saw.
a1825in Forby Voc. E. Anglia. 1864in Webster. 1897Q. Rev. Jan. 146 They titter-cum-totter. 1901Daily News 12 Jan. 6/4 How few really know East Anglian dialect... What does ‘tittymatauterin’ mean?.. It simply means ‘see-sawing’. 1907Black Cat June 25 [He] called back to the figure teter-tottering with the bowing of the log it rode. |