whiffle
1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680. Pronunciation
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1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680. Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈ(h)wɪfl̩/
whiffle (plural whiffles)
- A short blow or gust.
- (obsolete) Something small or insignificant; a trifle.
- (obsolete) A fife or small flute.
whiffle (whiffles, present participle whiffling; past and past participle whiffled)
- To blow a short gust.
- To waffle, talk aimlessly.
- (British) To waste time.
- To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
- (ornithology, of a bird) To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
- (intransitive) To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
- (transitive) To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
- To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
- I. Watts
- A person of whiffling and unsteady turn of mind cannot keep close to a point of controversy.
- I. Watts
- To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003