stottered

Verb

stotter (third-person singular simple present stotters, present participle stottering, simple past and past participle stottered)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, intransitive) To stagger; totter; stumble
   • When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide