(v. i. & t.) To move up and down on the ends of a balanced plank, or the like, as children do for sport; to seesaw; to titter; to titter-totter.
Example Sentences:
(1) Video games specialist Game was teetering on the brink of collapse on Friday after a rescue deal put forward by private equity firm OpCapita appeared to have been given the cold shoulder by lenders who are owed more than £100m.
(2) Slowing growth, financial fragility, governments teetering on the brink of insolvency and default, and clear signs of a public backlash against the excesses of the rich and powerful: all have created a sombre backdrop to the invitation-only affair.
(3) But did those people waking up on this day in January 100 years ago actually believe Britain was teetering on the brink of war?
(4) According to the then-city budget director, Peter Goldmark Jr, “Many people believe there is little or no real security or receivables behind these obligations.” Wall Street bankers, who had enabled much of this reckless behavior, now abruptly refused to take up any more of the city’s notes, leaving it teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
(5) But "cliff-edge" households – perhaps as many as 3.6m in England alone – now find themselves teetering precariously on the brink of poverty.
(6) In reality, it is exacerbating Greece's contradictions, while Greece is teetering on the edge of a cliff.
(7) I gaze, bemused and, yes, fascinated, at curious anthropological artefacts such as Bride Wars or He's Just Not That Into You or Confessions of a Shopaholic, in which Kate Hudson or Ginnifer Goodwin or Isla Fisher play characters who might almost belong to a third gender, a bubble-headed one that emits ear-splitting shrieks, teeters constantly on the verge of hysteria and acts as an indiscriminate mouthpiece for the placement of overpriced tat.
(8) "Pakistan continues to teeter on non-governability … Pakistan's education lags behind Bangladesh's.
(9) To care for heart transplant recipients is to walk an endless tightrope, teetering between too little immunosuppression, and consequent rejection episodes, and too much immunosuppression, with its correlated infection and neoplasia risks.
(10) These are not the figures of a man teetering on the edge or an army on the brink of national humiliation.
(11) Mention of his alleged complicity appears to have set off Kasidiaris during the talk show appearance that has highlighted Greece's teetering position on the edge of dysfunction and despair.
(12) On the verge of defeat the yellow and green Fanatics in the crowd, forever teetering on the line between amusing and annoying, urged him “fight, Nicky, fight” and he did just that.
(13) Presence and the relation of the nerve endings with associated structures in the lund of Rattus rattus rufescens (Indian black rat) and Francolinus pondicerianus (grey partridge or safed teeter) has been studied by cholinesterase technique.
(14) After a night of tough bargaining, European leaders have appeared to salvage what had seemed to be a summit teetering toward failure by agreeing early on Friday to funnel money directly to struggling banks, and in the longer term to form a tighter union.
(15) When Raymond Schwab talks about his case, his voice teeters between anger and sadness.
(16) There is a palpable feeling in the country that the ruling junta has run out of ground, teetering on the precipice and threatening to take the country with it.
(17) Photograph: guardian.co.uk Seven months later, despite the economy teetering close to a triple dip recession, the Tories' 2% lead has now stretched to 7% with 29% preferring Cameron and Osborne and just 22% putting their faith in the Labour duo.
(18) IFS inequality chart IFS warns of biggest squeeze on pay for 70 years over Brexit Read more “These troubling forecasts show millions of families across the country are teetering on a precipice, with 400,000 pensioners and over one million more children likely to fall into poverty and suffer the very real and awful consequences that brings if things do not change.
(19) The sector's problems are set to continue in 2012 as shoppers continue to cut back on non-essential spending and the economy teeters on the edge of recession.
(20) Innervation of the pancreas with reference to blood vessels, pancreatic duct, and islets of Langerhans has been studied in Francolinus pondicerianus (grey partridge or safed teeter).
Tenter
Definition:
(n.) One who takes care of, or tends, machines in a factory; a kind of assistant foreman.
(n.) A kind of governor.
(n.) A machine or frame for stretching cloth by means of hooks, called tenter-hooks, so that it may dry even and square.