Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rocking, unequal motion, as of a wheel unevenly hung or a top imperfectly balanced.
- To incline to the one side and to the other alternately, as a wheel, top, spindle, or other rotating body when not properly balanced; move in the manner of a rotating disk when its plane vibrates from side to side; rock; vacillate.
- Hence To vacillate, vibrate, tremble, or exhibit unevenness, in senses other than mechanical.
- To cause to wabble: as, to
wabble one's head. - noun The larva of the emasculating bot-fly, Cutiterebra emasculator, which infests squirrels in the United States; also, the injury or affection resulting from its presence. See
warble , and cut underCutiterebra . Alsoworble . - noun An old name of the great auk, Alca impennis. Josselyn, New England Rarities Discovered.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A hobbling, unequal motion, as of a wheel unevenly hung; a staggering to and fro.
- intransitive verb To move staggeringly or unsteadily from one side to the other; to vacillate; to move the manner of a rotating disk when the axis of rotation is inclined to that of the disk; -- said of a turning or whirling body.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb
wobble , move to and fro
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word wabble.
Examples
-
He found the mere repetition of the word "wabble" sufficient to produce almost inextinguishable mirth.
-
The least "wabble" might cause the current to strike her on the side, and send her over on her beam ends in the vortex below us.
Up the River or, Yachting on the Mississippi Oliver Optic 1859
-
We made our course at a right angle with the levee, and kept the helm firmly against any tendency to "wabble;" for if the swift tide had struck her on the side, it would have hurled her around in spite of us.
Up the River or, Yachting on the Mississippi Oliver Optic 1859
-
-- When an author has a number of books out a cunning hand will keep them all spinning, as Signor Blitz does his dinner-plates; fetching each one up, as it begins to "wabble," by an advertisement, a puff, or a quotation.
Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
-
- When an author has a number of books out a cunning hand will keep them all spinning, as Signor Blitz does his dinner-plates; fetching each one up, as it begins to "wabble," by an advertisement, a puff, or a quotation.
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
-
"wabble" with a key, or be tickled with seeing how bright distant things were in the telescope, all were attentive.
Letter from Charles Phillips to David L. Swain, January 15, 1853 1853
-
They fly true, slide thru the wind with less wabble and when they hit game, they penetrate thru and thru unless a huge elk and a bone stops them.
Petzal: .270 vs. 2009
-
There was no wabble to the revolver and it was directed toward her stomach, not from an outstretched arm, but from the hip, against which the forearm rested.
To Kill a Man 2010
-
Also, he saw that the revolver did not wabble, nor the hand shake, and he was thoroughly conversant with the size of hole the soft-nosed bullets could make.
To Kill a Man 2010
-
It was funny to see his broken jaw wabble as he said it.
Bunches of Knuckles 2010
bilby commented on the word wabble
Is this what Weebles do?
December 30, 2008
madmouth commented on the word wabble
and would Dweebles dwabble?
October 28, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word wabble
They might, but they dwon't fall dwown.
October 28, 2009