un·stead·y

(ŭn-stĕd′ē)

adj. un·stead·i·er, un·stead·i·est

1. Not firm, solid, or securely in place; unstable.

2. Fluctuating; changeable: an unsteady market.

3. Not even or regular; wavering: an unsteady voice.

tr.v. un·stead·ied, un·stead·y·ing, un·stead·ies

To cause to become unsteady.

un·stead′i·ly adv.

un·stead′i·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adv.

unsteadily - in an unsteady manner; "he walked unsteadily toward the exit"; "The wounded soldier was swinging unsteadily on his legs"

falteringly, uncertainly

steady, steadily - in a steady manner; "he could still walk steadily"

Translations

instabilmente

unsteadily

[ˈʌnˈstedɪlɪ] ADV → de manera insegura; [walk] → con paso vacilante

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

unsteadily

[ʌnˈstɛdɪli] adv [walk, move] → d'un pas chancelant

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

unsteadily

adj rise, walk → schwankend, unsicher; say → mit schwankender or unsicherer Stimme

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

unsteadily

[ˌʌnˈstɛdɪlɪ] adv → in modo incerto

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It's safe there-- it's not safe here." You turned away unsteadily, and put on your dressing-gown.

View in context

He rises unsteadily from the bed, lays the pipe upon the hearth- stone, draws back the ragged curtain, and looks with repugnance at his three companions.

View in context

"My ship," began the captain, waving his hand unsteadily towards the cages, "was a clean ship.

View in context

I rose and walked unsteadily up the steep incline of the bridge.

View in context

"Why--why, pardner, where yeh goin'?" he asked unsteadily. The youth looking at him, could see that he, too, like that other one, was beginning to act dumb and animal-like.

View in context

Wingrave laughed a little unsteadily as he rose to his feet.

View in context

"Is this the way you mean to answer it, Hilda?" he asked unsteadily.

View in context

More than once Magdalen had peeped round the screen, and had seen the old sailor unsteadily keeping his watch, and fancying himself once more at his duty on board ship.

View in context

Stryver never had a case in hand, anywhere, but Carton was there, with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling of the court; they went the same Circuit, and even there they prolonged their usual orgies late into the night, and Carton was rumoured to be seen at broad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings, like a dissipated cat.

View in context

But he presently presented himself under worthier circumstances; for, the Genius of Youthful Love being in want of assistance - on account of the parental brutality of an ignorant farmer who opposed the choice of his daughter's heart, by purposely falling upon the object, in a flour sack, out of the firstfloor window - summoned a sententious Enchanter; and he, coming up from the antipodes rather unsteadily, after an apparently violent journey, proved to be Mr.

View in context

It was his grimmest deed since the days when he had brought Barbecue to heel; and knowing as we do how vain a tabernacle is man, could we be surprised had he now paced the deck unsteadily, bellied out by the winds of his success?

View in context

They swaggered unsteadily but belligerently toward the bar and looked at Pete with bleared and blinking eyes.

View in context