Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use teeter in a sentence

15 example sentences · verb, noun

Teeter means to tilt back and forth on an edge. Example: “He teetered on the brink of the precipice.”

Examples of teeter by meaning

verbTo tilt back and forth on an edge.

  • He teetered on the brink of the precipice.
  • The concrete floors of B2B sheds were already being built to an exacting degree of flatness, calibrated using lasers, so that forklifts would not teeter while lifting pallets to the highest shelves.2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 24...

verbTo totter (move unsteadily).

  • Some teeter along for a long time even though their base of support seems to have eroded; some metamorphose into something else entirely.1985 December 28, Nora Janeway, “Women's Pentagon Action Meets for the Last Time”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 24, page 12

verbTo be indecisive; to hesitate.

  • We teetered on the fence about buying getaway tickets and missed the opportunity.

verbTo be close to becoming a typically negative situation.

  • Despite appearances, the firm was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

More sentences with teeter

  • On to that financial setup, forever teetering on a cliff edge, drop two parking tickets.2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The…. From the entry ostrich-like
  • High-heeled shoes were at the point of flatlining, industry pundits fretted, teetering on the edge of extinction.2021 June 13, Ruth La Ferla, “High heels are ready to stomp out crocs”, in Philadelphia Tribune, page 3B. From the entry sutorial
  • When she looked at photographs of raging urticaria or furfuraceous rashes, she teetered between repulsion and captivation.2000, Dashka Slater, The Wishing Box, page 6. From the entry furfuraceous
  • One snake-necked Whiteback teeters on the head then, steady, dips into the socket.1999, Alice Friman, Zoo, page 6. From the entry whiteback
  • Beneath that is a hexagon of windows, like the teetering top of an old wizard’s tower: something Hogwartsy, or Rapunzelesque.2017, Jake Burt, Greetings from Witness Protection!, New York, N.Y.: Feiwel and Friends, →ISBN, page 110. From the entry Hogwartsy
  • Cathy teetered downstairs on very high heels, her hair swept up in a disintegrating “brioche”, her eyes glistening with belladonna drops.2005 June 13, Edmund White, “My Women: Learning how to love them.”, in The New Yorker. From the entry belladonna
  • As the hearing wore on, the foot-high stack of folders teetered on the edge of the table and finally dropped off.1986 June 21, Mike Robinson, “Bill Bradley, the tax reformer”, in Daily Globe, number 265, Worthington, Minn., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4…. From the entry wear on
  • Cowboys in high-heeled boots teeter along its sidewalks, or push the swinging doors aside for a shot or two—straight, no chaser.1947, John Clarkson Jay, Skiing the Americas, page 115. From the entry chaser
  • Mountains of chleb teetered on plates.2004, Helen McCourt Mentek, “The Wheel of Life”, in Ripples on a Puddle: A Collection of Short Stories, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford…. From the entry chleb
  • Sean Nelson delivers a disturbing portrayal as Fresh, a tensomething chess wizard (and a hardened drug runner) who is teetering on the edge of a life of crime.1996, TLA Film and Video Guide, 1996-1997, →ISBN. From the entry tensomething

Meaning of teeter

  1. verb To tilt back and forth on an edge.
  2. verb To totter (move unsteadily).
  3. verb To be indecisive; to hesitate.

Full definition of teeter

Questions about teeter in a sentence

How do you use teeter in a sentence?
Teeter is used as a verb and noun. For example: “He teetered on the brink of the precipice.”
What is a short sentence with teeter?
“Mountains of chleb teetered on plates.”
What does teeter mean?
Teeter means to tilt back and forth on an edge.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: teeter (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use teeter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/teeter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.