How to Use unsteady in a Sentence

unsteady

adjective
  • The progress of the work has been unsteady.
  • The horse walked with an unsteady gait.
  • He signed his name with an unsteady hand.
  • He was a little unsteady on his feet.
  • The third stayed in a dark stall for a week, unsteady and weak.
    — Melina Walling, The Arizona Republic, 19 Oct. 2021
  • My father did the ducklike thing again and blew three unsteady notes.
    — Madhuri Vijay, New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2025
  • But in the moment this flawed, unsteady Heat team played its heart out.
    — Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Change feels unsteady, and the reader will want to get to stable ground.
    — Jd Barker, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2026
  • In this case, though, the cast seems unsteady, or at least unconvinced.
    — Vulture, 4 Jan. 2024
  • The suspect was unsteady and had a strong odor of alcohol on him.
    — cleveland, 1 Apr. 2022
  • The Nets are not just any team with a rookie coach and an unsteady lineup.
    — New York Times, 20 May 2021
  • Tapered hulls may make carriers look unsteady, but there’s more than meets the eye here.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 14 Aug. 2023
  • But early last year, the 63-year-old became unsteady on her feet.
    — Christine Mai-Duc, CBS News, 26 Feb. 2026
  • An excited dog might careen into a small child or an adult who is unsteady on their feet.
    — Ronda Kaysen, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2022
  • In a half hour or so, the newborn gathers itself and stands unsteady on wobbly legs.
    — Susan Koch, Chicago Tribune, 8 May 2026
  • The senator seemed unsteady, but got up and kept walking with the help of his detail.
    — Lauren Peller, ABC News, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The route to Sykes is not for the unsteady or overburdened hiker.
    — Gregory Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Apr. 2021
  • After walking more than four miles on mostly unsteady terrain, my legs were ready for a rest.
    — Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2021
  • But the ability to turn away law enforcement is on unsteady ground.
    — Hannah Jackson, ELLE, 8 Dec. 2022
  • With advanced age, muscle weakness leads to an unsteady gait and a much greater risk of falling.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 9 Mar. 2023
  • Her unsteady words echoed through the hearing room, 35 miles and a chasm away from the Shakopee prison.
    — Photographs Todd Heisler, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2023
  • Fledglings can look unsteady or weak, but the parents are nearby for protection.
    — Blythe Copeland, Martha Stewart, 6 June 2026
  • Frazier came out of his corner in the 14th all but blind, rocking on unsteady legs.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
  • The year 2022 will mark nine decades of being alive — a foreign, unsteady thought.
    — Amy X. Wang, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2021
  • If something feels unsteady or on shaky ground, it will be revealed — not to break you, but to rebuild something stronger.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 22 Oct. 2025
  • The ancient Greeks often compared the unsteady beat of waves against the shore to laughter.
    — Joseph Howlett, Quanta Magazine, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Keith made it through the procedure, but his recovery was slow and unsteady.
    — Jaeah Lee, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2023
  • The sound of the bucket is unruly, unsteady, but still very rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat.
    — New York Times, 2 June 2021
  • The work shows a man on a crooked path, in an unsteady green landscape, walking toward dogs, one of which has a smudge of paint for a nose.
    — Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2021
  • Still, his childhood was unsteady, with his mother slipping in and out of addiction.
    — Paige Fry, chicagotribune.com, 29 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unsteady.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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