步态蹒跚

步態蹣跚
bùtài-pánshān
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 to walk unsteadily
  2. 2 to stagger / totter (often of an old or injured person, or someone drunk)

Examples

HSK 3
Lǎorén bùtàipánshān de zǒuguò mǎlù.
The old man tottered across the road.
HSK 5
Tā hē zuìle, bùtàipánshān.
He was drunk and walking unsteadily.

Tips

usage
Slightly literary. 步态 (bùtài) is 'gait' and 蹒跚 (pánshān) is 'staggering' - both (foot) radicals. In casual speech you'd just say 走路一摇一晃 (zǒulù yī yáo yī huàng, 'walk swaying around') or 走得不稳 (zǒu de bù wěn, 'walk unsteadily'). 步态蹒跚 has a clinical-or-poetic flavour, used in medical writing about Parkinson's-type symptoms and in literary descriptions of the elderly.

Stroke Order

tài
pán
shān