tippy chair
- noun
:
silla inestable
- The tippy chair wobbled when I sat down.
Examples
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Parents worried that the tippy chair in the kitchen could be dangerous for children.
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He avoided sitting on the tippy chair after almost falling last time.
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The old wooden stool had become a tippy chair over the years.
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Be careful with that tippy chair!
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The tippy chair nearly tipped over when he leaned back for balance.
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She warned her friend about the tippy chair that wobbled with every movement.
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After fixing the legs, the once tippy chair became stable and safe to use.
How Stable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'tippy' (unstable and prone to tipping) directly modifies 'chair' to yield a compositional meaning 'a chair that tips over easily.' This simple adjective+noun pattern is standard and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the MWE.
Etymology
Tippy chair comes from the simple image of a tippy chair that leans and may 'tip over' when someone sits on it because its legs are uneven. So, it now means a chair that is 'not steady' and likely to fall.