| 释义 |
▪ I. tottle, a. dial.|ˈtɒt(ə)l|
[? f. tot- in totter v. + -le 1, as in brittle.]
Weak-headed, silly, dazed.
1894Baring-Gould Kitty Alone II. 94 Wi' the death of her little maid, gone almost tottle (silly). 1897― Furze-Bloom (1899) 13, I reckon. Genefer, the old lady be gone quite tottle (dazed).
▪ II. tottle, v.1 Chiefly dial.|ˈtɒt(ə)l|
Also 8–9 totle.
[In sense 1 app. onomatopœic, representing the motion and sound involved. In senses 2 and 3 perh. by-form of toddle or totter, and topple.]
1. a. intr. To move and bubble, as a boiling liquid; also said of the vessel; and applied to the somewhat similar motion and sound of a rivulet over a stony bed. Sc. Hence ˈtottling vbl. n.
1717Lament for Ld. Maxwell in Jacob. Songs & Ball. (1887) 103 'Side the sang o' the birds, where some burn tottles owre. 1739A. Nicol Nat. without Art 100 In Winter-time a Piece fat Beef to tottle. 1835J. Monteath Dunblane (1887) 32 The woman..cast a longing eye at the kail-pot ‘tottling on the fire’. 1864A. Leighton Myst. Leg. Edinb. (1886) 68 They heard the sound of..the sweltering and tottling of the pot.
b. trans. To cause to simmer or boil. Sc.
a1774Fergusson To Principal, etc. St. Andrews 40 Imprimis, then, a haggis fat, Weel tottl'd in a seything pat. 1776D. Herd Collect. Scot. Songs II. 182 Ye's get a cock well totled i' the pat, An ye'll come hame, an ye'll come hame.
2. intr. To move unsteadily and with short tottering steps; to toddle.
1821Galt Sir A. Wylie III. xxxiii. 287 Their bairns..when they begin to tottle about the house. 1824― Rothelan vi. iii, The tidy grand-dame..is seen with a pitcher slowly tottling across the fields to the dairy. 1873Hale In His Name i. 4 The twin babies who could hardly tottle along the road.
3. intr. = topple v. 1. dial.
1830Hogg in Blackw. Mag. XXVIII. 895 Off flew the English warder's head, And tottled into Foxton burn. a1905in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., (N. Yorks.) T'oad fella nearly tottled of t' steul 'at he was set on wi' laughing.
Hence ˈtottledom nonce-wd. (for toddledom), the sphere of toddlers or toddling; babyhood, infancy; tottlish |ˈtɒtlɪʃ|, ˈtottly adjs., unsteady, totterish.
1889Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 354 There not being the least fear of its..ever exceeding the limits of cameraic *tottledom.
1835Knickerbocker VI. 6 Had she not been obliged..to steady her *tottleish bark with the paddle which now loitered behind the stern. 1853Mrs. Moodie Life in Clearings 16 This was the first time he had ever ventured upon the water in such a tottleish machine [as a birch-bark canoe]. 1889C. F. Woolson Jupiter Lights xxviii, She'll soon fill it full of tottlish little tables and dimity.
1905Eng. Dial. Dict. VI. 203/1 *Tottly,..ready to fall, unstable. 1910Kipling Rewards & Fairies 155 My legs are pretty tottly, but I made shift to go on deck.
▪ III. ˈtottle, v.2
altered form of total v., with shortened vowel. (Common dialectally.)
1891Gosse Gossip in Library xiii. 164 She did not tottle up her milk-scores on the bastard-title [of a book]. |