different between tottering vs waning

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?we?.n??/
• Rhymes: -e?n??

Etymology 1

From Middle English waninge, alteration of earlier waniand, waniende, from Old English waniende, from Proto-Germanic *wan?ndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *wan?n? (“to wane”), equivalent to wane +? -ing.

Verb

waning

1. present participle of wane

Adjective

waning (not comparable)

1. Becoming weaker or smaller.

   his waning strength

2. Of the lunar phase: as it shrinks when viewed from the Earth.

   the waning moon

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English waning, waninge, wonunge, from Old English wanung (“waning; diminution”), from Proto-Germanic *wanung?, equivalent to wane +? -ing.

Noun

waning (plural wanings)

1. The fact or act of becoming less or less intense.

   the waning of her energy
2. The fact or act of becoming smaller.
   • 17th century, Joseph Hall, Epistle to Mr. R. B.

     This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses.

Translations

Anagrams

• Angwin, awning

North Frisian

Etymology

Cognates include Föhr-Amrum North Frisian wöning.

Noun

waning n (plural waninge)

1. (Mooring) window