toddle

verb

Definition of toddlenext
as in to totter

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of toddle On this trip back to the mountain village, children and chickens toddle around, and Elba scrubs laundry in an outdoor basin. — Sophie Carson, jsonline.com, 3 Dec. 2025 The sight of hundreds of tiny turtle hatchlings toddling their way down to the lapping ocean waves is the surest way to take your breath away. — Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 17 Oct. 2025 As players cleared the court, Ares could be seen with his mom, toddling across the hardwood with a basketball in hand, chasing after loose balls and even giving dribbling a try before his dad scooped him up. — Nasha Smith, PEOPLE, 16 Oct. 2025 The cost of transport while flying works out to be about 36, but just 14 while crawling, meaning that the robot is more than twice as efficient while toddling along on the ground. — IEEE Spectrum, 29 Mar. 2016 See All Example Sentences for toddle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for toddle
  1. totter
  2. lurch
  3. stumble
  4. flounder
  5. shake
  6. falter
  7. waver
Verb
  • Like a lot of us who tottered into consciousness in the second half of the 20th century, Les Claypool grew up with cartoons from the family television beaming into his retinas.
    — Sasha Geffen, Pitchfork, 2 Aug. 2026
  • Outside, a gull tottered to the window and tapped its beak against the glass.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026
Definition of totter
Verb
  • Sometimes the wagon will lurch forward on that initial pull before settling into your walking rhythm.
    — Thomas Ricker, The Verge, 6 Oct. 2026
  • The alternative is a region that lurches from crisis to crisis, and from one extreme to another.
    — DAN RESTREPO, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of lurch
Verb
  • Resendiz finished strongly, sending Mazoudier stumbling backward in the final minute.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 18 Oct. 2026
  • Munyon's Paw-Paw, an alcoholic beverage dating to the early 1900s, has been resurrected by two longtime spirits industry veterans who stumbled upon its unusual history during a family outing.
    — Peter Burke, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of stumble
Verb
  • Four months later Sand and her twenty-six-year-old medico also returned to Paris, whereupon their relationship promptly floundered.
    — Kathryn Hughes, The New York Review of Books, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Google seemed hopelessly far behind, while Meta, despite spending billions to revive its floundering AI ambitions, had yet to establish itself as a serious contender.
    — Robert Hart, The Verge, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of flounder
Verb
  • The pope then walked outside greeted and waved at the crowd and shook hands of hospital staff lined up by car to see him off.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Maybe the shooting shook something loose in her and has amplified her worst tendencies.
    — Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of shake
Verb
  • This week a deal for Volta Infrastructure faltered as investors feeling full-up on data center debt demanded higher yields.
    — Ellen DiMauro, semafor.com, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Even where efforts to build democratic institutions have faltered, as after the Arab Spring, liberal ideas have nonetheless persisted and expanded.
    — Mansoor Moaddel, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of falter
Verb
  • The round, initially expected to close by the end of August, has taken longer than planned as some prospective investors waver over the price, one of the people said, though talks are nearing the end.
    — Anniek Bao, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2026
  • The second is a classic MAGA narrative gambit to convince wavering Trump voters, as well as high-profile Senate candidates who have begun to distance themselves from the war, that the United States is winning.
    — David Faris, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of waver

Browse Nearby Words

todays
toddle
toddled
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Toddle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toddle. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All