waggle

English

Etymology

wag +‎ -le (“(frequentative)”). Compare continental equivalents Middle High German wacken ( > Danish vakle, German wackeln), Swedish vagla, West Frisian waggelje, Low German wackeln, Dutch waggelen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwaɡəl/

  Rhymes: -æɡəl

Verb

1. (transitive) To move (something) with short, quick motions; to wobble.
   • 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions.

2. (intransitive) To reel, sway, or move from side to side; to move with a wagging motion; to waddle.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act II, Scene 1,^[1]

     I know you by the waggling of your head.

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflections, 8th edition, London: A. Bettesworth et. al., 1738, Anianus’s Fables, Fab. 222, p. 239,^[2]

     Why do you go Nodding and Waggling so like a Fool, as if you were Hipshot? says the Goose to her Gosselin.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “British Columbia Nightingale,”^[3]

     The tassel on the end of his pigtail waggled all down the path and, as he turned out of the gate, it gave a special little flip.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• joystick waggler
• waggle dance
• waggler

• waggly
• woggle

Translations

move with short, quick motions; wobble

• French: frétiller (fr)
• German: wackeln (de), wedeln (de)
• Japanese: 振る (ja) (furu), 動かす (ja) (ugokasu), ぐらぐら動かす (guragura ugokasu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: mānānana, tīonioni, pīonioni, nenei, mānānana
• Portuguese: agitar (pt), sacudir (pt)

Noun

waggle (plural waggles)

1. A wobbling motion.
2. (golf) The preliminary swinging of the club head back and forth over the ball in the line of the proposed stroke.

Anagrams

• waggel