teetotum
any small top spun with the fingers.
a kind of die having four sides, each marked with a different initial letter, spun with the fingers in an old game of chance.
Origin of teetotum
1Words Nearby teetotum
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use teetotum in a sentence
Warble was unfamiliar with the teetotum-like things, but the others kindly instructed her.
Ptomaine Street | Carolyn WellsThe boat was a villainous little tub, and appeared to me to go round like a teetotum.
With an Ambulance During the Franco-German War | Charles Edward RyanEvery one appears to patronize the contrivance, and you constantly hear the click of the teetotum along the beach.
A Midsummer Drive Through The Pyrenees | Edwin Asa DixScopperil, skop′e-ril, n. a top: teetotum: the bone-foundation of a button.
Mr. Bright used to say he could not turn his back on himself, but Mr. Gladstone spins round and round like a teetotum.
Ireland as It Is | Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)
British Dictionary definitions for teetotum
/ (tiːˈtəʊtəm) /
a spinning top bearing letters of the alphabet on its four sides
such a top used as a die in gambling games
Origin of teetotum
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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