teeter-totter

teeter-totter
teeter-totter [tēt′ərtôt΄ər, tēt′ərtät΄ər]
n., vi.

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tee·ter-tot·ter (tēʹtər-tŏt'ər) n. Upper Northern & Western U.S.
See seesaw.
 
Regional Note: The outdoor toy usually called a seesaw has a number of regional names, New England having the greatest variety in the smallest area. In southeast New England it is called a tilt or a tilting board. Speakers in northeast Massachusetts call it a teedle board; in the Narragansett Bay area the term changes to dandle or dandle board. Teeter or teeterboard is used more generally in the northeast United States, while teeter-totter, probably the most common term after seesaw, is used across the inland northern states and westward to the West Coast. Both seesaw (from the verb saw) and teeter-totter (from teeter, as in to teeter on the edge) demonstrate the linguistic process called reduplication, where a word or syllable is doubled, often with a different vowel. Reduplication is typical of words that indicate repeated activity, such as riding up and down on a seesaw.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • teeter-totter — teeter .totter n AmE a large toy like a board on which two children sit, one at each end British Equivalent: seesaw …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • teeter-totter — teeter ,totter noun count AMERICAN a children s word for a SEESAW …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • teeter-totter — [tēt′ərtôt΄ər, tēt′ərtät΄ər] n., vi. SEESAW …   English World dictionary

  • teeter-totter — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms teeter totter : singular teeter totter plural teeter totters American a children s word for a seesaw …   English dictionary

  • teeter totter — Synonyms and related words: Ferris wheel, Lissajous figure, alternate, alternation, back and fill, back and forth, battledore and shuttlecock, carousel, chute the chutes, chutes, come and go, coming and going, ebb and flow, flounder, fluctuate,… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • teeter-totter — (Roget s IV) n. Syn. seesaw, teeter, teeterboard, teeteringboard, hickey horse, tipitty bounce, teetery bender; see also game 1 , toy 1 …   English dictionary for students

  • teeter-totter — I noun a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end • Syn: ↑seesaw, ↑teeter, ↑teetertotter, ↑teeterboard, ↑tilting board, ↑dandle board • …   Useful english dictionary

  • teeter-totter N. Amer. or — dialect noun a see saw. verb teeter; waver. Origin C19: reduplication of teeter or totter …   English new terms dictionary

  • teeter-totter — noun Date: circa 1905 seesaw 2b …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • teeter-totter — noun A seesaw; a piece of playground equipment consisting of a long board with seats at either end, with a pivot point in the center …   Wiktionary

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