From Middle English waveren, from Old Norse vafra, akin to Old English wǣfre.

• (British) IPA: /ˈweɪ.və(ɹ)/
• (America) IPA: /ˈweɪ.vɚ/

waver (wavers, present participle wavering; simple past and past participle wavered)

1. (intransitive) To sway back and forth; to totter or reel.

   Flowers wavered in the breeze.

   • 1523–1525, Jean Froissart, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (translator), Froissart's Chronicles

     With banners and pennons wavering with the wind.

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC ↗:

     Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities.

2. (intransitive) To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light.
3. (intransitive) To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch.
4. (intransitive) To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice.

   His voice wavered when the reporter brought up the controversial topic.

5. (intransitive) To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way.
6. (intransitive) To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.

   Despite all the terrible things that happened to her, she never wavered from her beliefs.

• wave

• French: vaciller
• Spanish: balancearse, ondear

• Spanish: fluctuar, variar, oscilar

• Spanish: flaquear, vacilar

• Portuguese: vacilar

waver (plural wavers)

1. An act of wavering, vacillating, etc.
2. Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc.

   I felt encouraged by all the enthusiastic wavers in the crowd.

   The Fourth of July brings out all the flag wavers.

   Johnny is such a little waver; everyone who passes by receives his preferred greeting.

3. Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment).
4. A tool that accomplishes hair waving.
5. (UK, dialect, dated) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.

1. A river in northern Cumbria, which flows into the Solway Firth.