Waldo
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of telefactor.
"Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism."
- 1 A male given name from Old English, in modern American use transferred back from the surname.
"He was our first baby, born September 4, 1939, our only boy. Named Waldo after a kind of bakin powder I liked. 'Waldo's Cream Powder.'"
- 2 A surname transferred from the given name.
Example
More examples"If I could draw well, I would paint pictures in "Where is Waldo?"-style, but leave out Waldo."
Etymology
From the Robert A. Heinlein story Waldo, published in Astounding in 1940, derived from the name of the eponymous protagonist, Waldo F. Jones, who invented remote manipulators to overcome his own myasthenia gravis.
English surname, from the obsolete English given name Waltheof, from Old English weald (“power”) + þēof (“thief”), as in "one who snatched victory from battle." Comparable to, or ultimately Anglicized from, the Old Norse equivalent Valthiófr, from vald + *ᚦᛖᚢᛒᚨᛉ (*þeubaʀ). Compare Walthall, Waldie.
Related phrases
More for "waldo"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.