Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The staggering or stumbling gait characteristic of certain nervous disorders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of stumbling or staggering; a tottering.
  • noun In medicine, restlessness; an inclination to constant change of position; fidgets.
  • noun The act of rocking or rolling, as a curved body on a plane.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of stumbling, rocking, or rolling; a reeling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of stumbling, rocking, or rolling; a reeling.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin titubātiō, titubātiōn-, a staggering, from titubātus, past participle of titubāre, to stagger.]

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Examples

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  • A staggering or unsteadiness of walk or posture.

    This word is mostly in medical use, to describe some abnormal way of walking or of holding oneself, usually as a symptom of a cerebral or spinal disease. It comes directly from the Latin verb titubare, which could mean "stutter" as well as "stumble", and this former meaning occasionally surfaced in English, though it is long since obsolete. Outside medicine, titubation has been used facetiously to refer to unsteadiness brought on by too much of the demon drink.

    (from World Wide Words)

    May 13, 2008