Waddle
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A squat, swaying gait.
"the waddle of a duck"
- 2 walking with short steps and the weight tilting from one foot to the other wordnet
- 3 A group of birds, such as ducks and penguins, when walking.
- 1 To walk with short steps, tilting the body from side to side. intransitive
"The pond was another favourite place to visit. Moorhens strutted from the neighbouring bushes, and a bevy of Muscovy ducks, a study in black, white and red, waddled from the farmyard hard by to enjoy a refreshing splash."
- 2 walk unsteadily, with short steps wordnet
- 3 To move slowly. intransitive
"Now, on the bright side, things weren't all bad; they had commendably-thick belt armor, which was 12 inches thickness, and they had a very large number of subdivided watertight compartments, which would make them very durable. Due to their being quite fat, they could also turn very quickly, even if they were waddling along by the end of the turn."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Very fat people waddle when they walk, though few of them realize it."
Etymology
From Middle English wadelen, frequentative form of waden, equivalent to wade + -le. Compare Saterland Frisian wuttelje (“to waddle”), Old High German wadalōn (“to roam; wander”), Middle High German wadelen, wedelen (“to wander; rove”), German wedeln (“to waggle”). First known use in English in a version of the Song of Roland around the year 1400. (Source:OED online)
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.