Translation guide
Describes unsteady movement, often due to weakness, age, or intoxication. Japanese uses mimetic words and verbs to capture the wobbling, staggering quality.
Describe someone walking with a shaky, unsteady gait, as if about to fall.
Mimetic adverb for staggering or tottering, often with 歩く or する. Common for weakness, dizziness, or drunkenness.
The old man is tottering along.
He was tottering, drunk.
Mimetic word for wobbling or tottering, often from exhaustion, illness, or intoxication. Slightly lighter than よろよろ.
I'm tottering from the fever.
Mimetic word for tottering with a clumsy, waddling motion, often used for toddlers or the very weak.
The baby started tottering around.
Literally 'plover's gait', meaning a tottering, zigzag walk like a drunkard. Somewhat literary or humorous.
He tottered home with a drunken stagger.
Describe a building, structure, or system that is unsteady and likely to fall or fail.
Describe a system, regime, or plan that is faltering and may fail.
The old house is tottering on the verge of collapse.
Idiom: 'a lamp before the wind', meaning something tottering on the brink of collapse. Dramatic and literary.
The company is tottering on the brink of ruin.