From un- +‎ steady. Like steady, the word first appeared in English around 1530. The word is comparable to Old Frisian onstedich, Low German unstadig, etc.

• IPA^(key): /ʌnˈstɛdi/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛdi
• Hyphenation: un‧steady

unsteady (comparative unsteadier, superlative unsteadiest)

1. Not held firmly in position; physically unstable.

   A slightly unsteady item of furniture.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day:[…]"

2. Lacking regularity or uniformity.
3. Inconstant in purpose, or volatile in behavior.

• (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): precarious, rickety, shaky; see also Thesaurus:rickety
• (lacking regularity or uniformity): chaotic, irregular, unstable; see also Thesaurus:unsteady

• steady

• unsteadily

unsteady (third-person singular simple present unsteadies, present participle unsteadying, simple past and past participle unsteadied)

1. To render unsteady, removing balance.

• Dauntsey, unstayed