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waffle love

waffle

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To wave; fluctuate.
  • noun A particular kind of batter cake baked in waffle-irons and served hot.
  • To bark incessantly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A thin cake baked and then rolled; a wafer.
  • noun A soft indented cake cooked in a waffle iron.
  • noun an iron utensil or mold made in two parts shutting together, -- used for cooking waffles over a fire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable A flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern.
  • noun countable, UK A potato waffle, a savoury flat potato cake with the same kind of grid pattern.
  • verb To smash.
  • noun uncountable Speech or writing that is vague, pretentious or evasive.
  • verb of birds To move in a side-to-side motion and descend (lose altitude) before landing. Cf wiffle, whiffle.
  • verb To speak or write vaguely and evasively.
  • verb To speak or write at length without any clear point or aim.
  • verb To vacillate.
  • verb transitive To rotate (one's hand) back and forth in a gesture of vacillation or ambivalence.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun pancake batter baked in a waffle iron
  • verb pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The Dutch word wafel was adopted into English in the 1700s. The Dutch word, in turn, derives from the Middle Low German wāfel (modern German Waffel), which was borrowed into Middle English around 1377 as wafer, and which is also the source of the French gaufre. Wāfel, in turn, derives from the Old High German waba, wabo (modern German Wabe), meaning honeycomb and ultimately related to the word weave. The verb sense "to smash" derives from the manner in which waffle-batter is smashed into its shape between the two halves of a waffle iron, and the sense "to press a waffle pattern into" derives from the pattern the waffle-iron-halves impart.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Scots waffle, "to waver, to flutter", a variation of the Scots waff ("to flutter, to wave", related to wave), with the suffix -le added. Alternatively, perhaps derived from waff, an imitation of a dog's (unintelligible and thus meaningless) yelp (cf woof). Also note Old English wæflian ("to talk foolishly").

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Examples

Comments

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  • chained_bear commented on the word waffle

    In a world without W...

    "A fine word like 'waffle'

    Would turn out just 'affle.'

    Oh, double-u's grand as can beeeee..."

    --Bert (of Sesame Street)

    Every time I see this word, I want to eat a waffle.

    October 28, 2007

  • toonacious_d commented on the word waffle

    "Where's my waffles?!" - Cotton Hill from the animated series, King Of The Hill

    December 1, 2007

  • plethora commented on the word waffle

    "I like a waffle because a waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap. A waffle says to the syrup, 'Hold on now. You ain't goin' anywhere. Don't even think about tryin' to creep down the sides. Just rest in these squares! When one square is full, move onto the next one. When you hit the butter, split up!!'"

    --Mitch Hedberg

    April 6, 2008

  • lampbane commented on the word waffle

    Penny Arcade (03/28/08):

    "Can't you hear them? Can't you hear the waffles?"

    May 14, 2008

  • Prolagus commented on the word waffle

    This is my 2000th word on Wordie.

    October 11, 2008

  • oroboros commented on the word waffle

    Wow! That's about 500 more than there are Waffle Houses. Good show!!

    October 19, 2008

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    In four years of marriage

    we never made a waffle

    and now we're fighting about the waffle iron.

    - Barrett Warner, The Waffle Iron.

    January 27, 2009

  • chained_bear commented on the word waffle

    That poem makes me sad, and at the same time I want to crack their heads together and tell them to make up.

    January 27, 2009

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    It's sad :-(

    I'm not familiar with the verbal definition given by WeirdNet. It also doesn't list the verbal use I hear quite commonly, ie. to waffle on - to be verbose, to palaver.

    January 27, 2009

  • rolig commented on the word waffle

    The meaning of waffle as a verb that I am most familiar with is "to waver, keep changing one's mind," which sort of fits Weirdnet's definition. The verb waffle has become part of the US political jargon; candidates are fond of accusing their opponents of "waffling" on certain issues – which often refers to their opponent taking a more nuanced position on a complex and controversial subject rather than simply making an absolute ideological pronouncement. Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign was regularly accused of waffling on the issues, which led to Gary Trudeau using a floating, wobbly waffle (with various amounts of butter on it) as his cartoon icon for Bill Clinton in the Doonesbury comic strip.

    Bilby, I'm not familiar with the phrase "to waffle on" in the sense of "to be verbose". Is this the same as saying "to ramble on" – to talk on and on without making a lot of sense?

    January 27, 2009

  • plethora commented on the word waffle

    I'm with you b, that's how I would use it as well.

    Rolig, I would say it is much the same as '"to ramble".

    January 27, 2009

  • vanishedone commented on the word waffle

    The 1989 O.E.D. says the dither meaning is 'orig. Sc. and north. dial. Now colloq. or non-Standard.' Judging by Rolig's comment, maybe it's made a comeback since, though the only new addition from 1993 is a new sense: 'Of an aircraft or motor vehicle: to cruise along in a leisurely manner, usu. at low speed. colloq. (orig. R.A.F.).'

    The 'talk verbosely and inconsequentially' sense is attested from 1701 and treated as current; it's the sense I'm familiar with too.

    January 27, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the word waffle

    I agree with rolig: though I have heard it used in the sense of blathering on, or rambling, the primary meaning I associate with it is dithering - a failure to take a firm position on an issue. It seems to me that the (apocryphal) newspaper headline

    "BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLANDS"

    is more consistent with the 'dithering' sense.

    January 27, 2009

  • pterodactyl commented on the word waffle

    Ladies and gentlemen, I think what we have here is a cultural divide. Here in the US, the word is commonly understood to have the meaning that rolig described (dithering, repeatedly changing one's mind, failing to take a steady stance on an issue). Clinton was one famous target of this word; another was John Kerry, who was accused of both "waffling" and "flip-flopping".

    I also want to say that the "be verbose" meaning is completely unknown here -- certainly it's unknown to me -- but before I make such a strong statement, I need some unscientific confirmation from my fellow American Wordies.

    Help me out, guys. Do you find bilby's definition as alien as I do?

    (Edit: while I was typing this, sionnach came along and defended both meanings, which leads me to suspect that he's not merely a gentleman, but also a world traveler and a global citizen.)

    January 27, 2009

  • chained_bear commented on the word waffle

    I hereby confess I'm less of a global citizen than I wished. I hadn't heard bilby's definition either.

    (Though, let it be said, that isn't entirely unusual.)

    And let's just remember that waffles are really good. Mmm... buttery syrupy goodness... and then a good blood-sugar crash.

    January 27, 2009

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    Note that it's usually in the phrasal form, waffle on.

    Or with strawberries.

    January 27, 2009

  • vanishedone commented on the word waffle

    How about the noun corresponding to the 'blather inconsequentially' sense? Writing advice for undergrads. in my Dept. (Durham, U.K.) tells them to avoid 'waffle: a waste of your time and the reader's'; I'd naturally read that as waffling in the sense of going on and on pointlessly.

    January 27, 2009

  • kewpid commented on the word waffle

    I subscribe to bilby's definition. To waffle on is to be prolix or a windbag.

    January 28, 2009

  • yarb commented on the word waffle

    My BrE puts me 100% in camp Bilby.

    January 28, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the word waffle

    It seems as if nobody is wrong in this debate. From the Etymological Dictionary online:

    waffle (v.)

    1698, "to yelp, bark," frequentative of waff "to yelp" (1610); possibly of imitative origin. Figurative sense of "talk foolishly" (1701) led to that of "vacillate, equivocate" (1803), originally a Scottish and northern Eng. usage.

    January 28, 2009

  • reesetee commented on the word waffle

    I love that in this discussion, someone can use the words "prolix" and "windbag" in the same sentence. Thanks, kewpid. :-)

    January 28, 2009

  • kewpid commented on the word waffle

    Sure thing, reesetee!

    January 28, 2009

  • cbw commented on the word waffle

    "BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLANDS"

    Am I the only one that had a laugh at this headline?

    January 28, 2009

  • Prolagus commented on the word waffle

    Oh, ha ha ha!

    January 28, 2009

  • chained_bear commented on the word waffle

    No, you're not the only one. But I must admit, I just assumed* it meant that some British people left their waffles there.

    *not really.

    January 28, 2009

  • skipvia commented on the word waffle

    That's way better than "SOLDIERS ABANDON POSTS IN AFGHANISTAN."

    January 28, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the word waffle

    "AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HELPS TORTURE VICTIMS IN AFGHANISTAN"

    January 28, 2009

  • plethora commented on the word waffle

    But, but, but... why would anyone leave their waffles behind? I mean, waffles are delicious; they're the first thing I packed when I left the Falkland Islands.

    Etymological debate, what?

    January 28, 2009

  • reesetee commented on the word waffle

    I agree. Nor, if I had a post, would I leave it in Afghanistan.

    January 28, 2009

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    Etymologically-speaking, goes back to the same root as weave. Possibly weevil does too.

    June 21, 2022

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    alexz has been appointed to create a tongue twister on this theme. Thank you.

    June 21, 2022

  • alexz commented on the word waffle

    How much awful can an offal waffle falafel be if an awful falafel used awful offal waffles?

    June 21, 2022

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    Ooh, that's very good.

    June 21, 2022

  • bilby commented on the word waffle

    Also, #crimesagainstfalafel.

    June 21, 2022