different between tottering vs feeble

English

Verb

tottering

1. present participle of totter

Adjective

tottering (comparative more tottering, superlative most tottering)

1. Unsteady, precarious or rickety.
2. Unstable, insecure or wobbly.

Translations

Noun

tottering (plural totterings)

1. The movement of one who totters.
   • 1918, George Moore, A Storyteller's Holiday

     Its faint descent tried the powers of the horse to keep back the car, and so feeble were his totterings that I began to fear we should miss the train […]

Synonyms

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): precarious, rickety, shaky, unsteady, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

English

Etymology

From Middle English feble, from Anglo-Norman feble (“weak, feeble”) (compare French faible), from Latin fl?bilis (“tearful, mournful, lamentable”). Doublet of foible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fi?b?l/
• Rhymes: -i?b?l

Adjective

feeble (comparative feebler, superlative feeblest)

1. Deficient in physical strength

   Though she appeared old and feeble, she could still throw a ball.
2. Lacking force, vigor, or efficiency in action or expression; faint.

   That was a feeble excuse for an example.

Synonyms

• (physically weak): weak, infirm, debilitated
• (wanting force, vigor or efficiency): faint

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

feeble (third-person singular simple present feebles, present participle feebling, simple past and past participle feebled)

1. (obsolete) To make feeble; to enfeeble.

References

• feeble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• feeble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• beflee

Middle English

Adjective

feeble

1. Alternative form of feble