Meanings
teetotum1
plural teetotums · alternative tetotum · alternative T-totum · alternative tee-totem
- historicalA toy (spinning top) similar to a dreidel.
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho/Time's teetotum/If you spin it/Gives it quotum...
1893, “First You're Born”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music)2 more examples
The town awakes; the great tee-totum is set up for its daily spin and whirl; […]
1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Tom-all-alone’s”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 157"Are you a child or a teetotum?" the Sheep said, as she took up another pair of needles. "You'll make me giddy soon, if you go on turning round like that."
1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Wool and Water”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 104
teetotum2
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna conical child's plaything tapering to a steel point on which it can be made to spin
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latintotum“all”
- Englishteetotum
From Latin totum (“all”), marked by a T on one of the four sides.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
teetotum. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teetotum
“teetotum.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teetotum. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “teetotum,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teetotum.
Source: teetotum on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.