Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move unsteadily back and forth: synonym: swing.
  • intransitive verb To move in a certain direction with a swaying or unsteady motion.
  • intransitive verb To exhibit irresolution or indecision; vacillate.
  • intransitive verb To become unsteady or unsure; falter.
  • intransitive verb To become diverted.
  • intransitive verb To change or fluctuate.
  • intransitive verb To tremble or quaver in sound, as of the voice or a musical note.
  • intransitive verb To flicker or glimmer.
  • noun The action of wavering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sapling or timberling left standing in a fallen wood.
  • To move up and down or to and fro; wave; float; flutter; be tossed or rocked about; sway.
  • To quiver; flicker; glimmer; glance.
  • To falter; fail; reel; totter.
  • To be undetermined or irresolute; fluctuate; vacillate.
  • Synonyms and Vacillate. See fluctuate.
  • Hesitate, etc. See scruple.
  • To cause to wave or move to and fro; set in waving motion; brandish.
  • To demur or scruple about; hesitate at; shirk.
  • noun One who or that which waves; specifically, in printing, an inking-roller; an apparatus which distributes ink on the table or on other rollers, but not on the form of types: so called from its vibratory movement.

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

  • intransitive verb To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter.
  • intransitive verb To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.

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

  • verb intransitive To sway back and forth; to totter or reel.
  • verb intransitive To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light.
  • verb intransitive To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch.
  • verb intransitive To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice.
  • verb intransitive To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way.
  • verb intransitive To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.
  • noun An act of wavering, vacillating, etc.
  • noun Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc.
  • noun Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment).
  • noun A tool that accomplishes hair waving.
  • noun UK, dialect, dated A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.
  • noun A darkwaver; a fan of darkwave music.

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

  • noun the act of moving back and forth
  • verb be unsure or weak
  • verb move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern
  • noun someone who communicates by waving
  • verb give off unsteady sounds, alternating in amplitude or frequency
  • verb pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness
  • verb move back and forth very rapidly
  • verb sway to and fro
  • noun the act of pausing uncertainly
  • verb move hesitatingly, as if about to give way

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English waveren; see webh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse vafra ("to flicker").

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