titter

present singular third person titters · participle present tittering · participle past tittered · past tittered

1. To laugh or giggle in a somewhat subdued or restrained way, as from nervousness or poorly-suppressed amusement.

   1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn Part First: The Sicilian's Tale - King Robert of Sicily A group of tittering pages ran before.

   2 more examples

   "Thou coxy, cackling candle!" said Catweazle. "Why dost thou titter?"

   1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 70

   Nor had the joke been a vulgar one: it was the kind of elegant pleasantry that the minister of foreign affairs might have told the crown prince at a garden party a generation ago, causing the surrounding listeners to titter with delight.

   1997, Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; republished New York: Vintage Books, 1998, →ISBN, page 363

2. obsoleteTo teeter; to seesaw.

plural titters

1. A nervous or somewhat repressed giggle.

   April 21, 1811, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk There was a titter of […] delight on his countenance.

plural titters

1. in pluralslangvulgarA woman's breast.

   Flesh Gordon 2 - I remember that this one was chock full of big titters. Many of them looked like the natural variety, as well.

   1995 February 21, Agent_69 [username], “big breast video list”, in alt.sex.breast (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   there was an old lady from raleigh who was so doggone nasty by golly just squeezin her titters you'd pick up some critters and bathe twice in one month for your folly

   1999 March 13, MrMalo [username], “Re: State Capitals”, in alt.jokes.limericks (Usenet)

   “The poor dear, even her titters are weighted down with melancholy,” Pearle said to Mable. “I don't know what you're talking about. Her titters look perky enough to me,” Mable replied.

   2013, Dorothy St. James, Oak and Dagger, Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN

2. obsoleteslangA girl or young woman.

   1 more example

   David […] was a man peculiarly after God's own heart, had plenty of wives, and, when he got old and shaky, and there were doubts about his virility, the prophet of the Lord told him to go and get a young "titter" — a capable young woman — to test him, and see if the fires of his passion had gone out, and to keep him warm if they had. There is the Bible for you.

   1900, Parliamentary Debates, page 2973