teeter-totter (redirected from teeter-tottered)

tee·ter-tot·ter  (ttr-ttr)

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.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	teeter-totter - a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end dandle board, seesaw, teeter, teeterboard, teetertotter, tilting board playground - yard consisting of an outdoor area for children's play plaything, toy - an artifact designed to be played with
Verb	1.	teeter-totter - ride on a plank seesaw, teetertotter play - participate in games or sport; "We played hockey all afternoon"; "play cards"; "Pele played for the Brazilian teams in many important matches"