Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Totter,) Totyre, Tolter, adj. (adv.). Also: towtyr, -er. [ME toltir (Lydgate); f. as Totter,v.] Unstable, precarious; unreliable; uncertain. b. adv. Precariously, unreliably. a1400 Leg. S. xxviii 42.
The wikit warld scho ourcom als, That ay is totyre, fekil, & fals c1409-1436 Kingis Q. § 9.
On hir tolter quhele Euery wight cleuerith … And failyng foting [etc.] 1460 Hay Alex. 10770.
Mankynd is bayth towtyr and rekles Inclinit to vicis mare na gudlines a1500 Henr. Orph. 283.
Before his face ane apill hang also Fast at his mouth apon a tolter threid 1560 Rolland Seven S. 948.
That we may all prouyde Sum help, that may put by this towter tide And we sall do all that we can … For ȝour supplieb. adv. c1409-1436 Kingis Q. § 164.
They were ware that long[e] sat in place, So tolter quhilum did sche [sc. Fortune] it [sc. the wheel] to-wrye