What does "waver" mean?
An act of moving back and forth, swinging, or waving; a flutter, a tremble.
Waver
/ˈweɪvə/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An act of moving back and forth, swinging, or waving; a flutter, a tremble.
- Grammar: waver is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: falter, adventure, alternate, back and fill.
- Useful contrasts: be stable, consolidate, decide.
- Usage evidence: "Thus while they waver and, perplex with doubt, / urge diverse counsels, and in parts divide, / lo, from the citadel, foremost of a rout, / breathless Laocoon runs, and from afar cries out: / 'Ah! wretched townsmen! do ye think the foe / gone, or that guileless are their gifts? O blind / with madness! Thus Ulysses do ye know?'"
How to use "waver"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "waver" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "waver" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "waver" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "waver" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 An act of moving back and forth, swinging, or waving; a flutter, a tremble.
"No a bit butterflee on its silent waver, meeting the murmur of the straightforward bee."
- 2 One who waves their arms, or causes something to swing or wave.
"I felt encouraged by all the enthusiastic wavers in the crowd."
- 3 A sapling or other young tree left standing when other trees around it have been felled. dated, dialectal
"It is a very ordinary Copſe vvhich vvill not afford three or four Firſts, that is, Beſts; fourteen Seconds; tvvelve Thirds; eight VVavers, &c. according to vvhich proportions the ſizes of young Trees in Copſing are to ſucceed one another."
- 4 the act of moving back and forth wordnet
- 5 A state of beginning to weaken or showing signs of weakening in resolve; a falter. figuratively
"I hear the soldiers talk as I ride by, "There goes the old man. All's right." Not a waver, doubt, or hesitation when I order, and men march to certain death without a murmur if I call on them, because they know I value their lives as much as my own."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 A person who specializes in treating hair to make it wavy.
- 7 the act of pausing uncertainly wordnet
- 8 A state of feeling or showing doubt or indecision; a vacillation. figuratively
""Does she mean to accept him?" asked Travice. "Well, she's on the waver. She does not dislike him, and she does not particularly like him. He's too old for her; he's twenty years older than Liz; but it's her first offer, and young women are apt to think when they get that, they had better accept it, lest they may never get another.""
- 9 A tool used to make hair wavy.
- 10 someone who communicates by waving wordnet
- 11 In full waver roller: a roller which places ink on the inking table of a printing press with a back and forth, waving motion. historical
- 12 Synonym of waverer (“one who feels or shows doubt or indecision; a vacillator”). obsolete
"[N]o waver in Judgment, have I, though Gods mercy, ever been; but a conſtant aſſertor of, and ſufferer for my ſatisfiedneſs in, and adheſion to, the piety and probity of my breeding and belief, vvhich vvas ever, yet is, and I hope, through Gods grace, to death ſhall be, in point of Religion according to the Doctrine and Diſcipline of the Church of England."
Verb
- 1 To swing or wave, especially in the air, wind, etc.; to flutter. intransitive
"Flowers wavered in the breeze."
- 2 give off unsteady sounds, alternating in amplitude or frequency wordnet
- 3 To move without purpose or a specified destination; to roam, to wander. dated, intransitive
"[T]here vvere tvvo Channels, one on the North, another on the South, vvhere through the fiſher-men did vvander and vvauer vp to Norvvitch, and diuers parts of Suffolke and Norfolke, […]"
- 4 sway from side to side wordnet
- 5 To sway back and forth, as if about to fall; to reel, to stagger, to totter. archaic, intransitive
"[…] Oza for puttyng his hande to the holy ſhryne⸝ that vvas called Archa federis [the Ark of the Covenant]⸝ whan it was broughte by kyng Dauid frõ [from] the citie of Baba [i.e., Ba'alah or Kiriath-Jearim]⸝ though it were wauerynge and in daunger to fall⸝ yet was he ſtryken of god⸝ and fell deed [dead] immediately."
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern wordnet
- 7 To begin to weaken or show signs of weakening in resolve; to falter, to flinch, to give way. figuratively, intransitive
"Despite all the terrible things that happened to her, she never wavered from her beliefs."
- 8 move back and forth very rapidly wordnet
- 9 To feel or show doubt or indecision; to be indecisive between choices; to vacillate. figuratively, intransitive
"[…] I ſhall not much vvaver to affirm that thoſe vvords vvhich are made to intimate, as if they forbad all divorce but for adultery […] thoſe vvords tak'n circumſcriptly, […] are as much againſt plain equity, and the mercy of religion, […]"
- 10 move hesitatingly, as if about to give way wordnet
- 11 Of a body part such as an eye or hand, or the voice: to become unsteady; to shake, to tremble. figuratively, intransitive
"His voice wavered when the reporter brought up the controversial topic."
- 12 pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness wordnet
- 13 Of light, shadow, or a partly obscured thing: to flicker, to glimmer, to quiver. figuratively, intransitive
"For I took at once tvvo Triangular Glaſſes, and one of them being kept fixt in the ſame Poſture, that the Iris it projected on the Floor might not VVaver, I caſt on the ſame Floor another Iris vvith the other Priſm, and Moving it too and fro to bring vvhat part of the ſecond Iris I pleas'd, to fall upon vvhat part of the firſt I thought fit, vve did ſometimes (for a ſmall Errour ſuffices to hinder the Succeſs) obtain by this means a Green Colour in that part of the more Stable Iris, […]"
- 14 be unsure or weak wordnet
- 15 Chiefly of a quality or thing: to change, to fluctuate, to vary. figuratively, intransitive
"[T]he Englyſhe affaires (as you haue heard) within yͤ realme began to wauer, and waxe variable, whyche cauſed the Engliſhe capitaines, to be of diuerſe opinions."
- 16 Followed by from: to deviate from a course; to stray, to wander. intransitive, obsolete
"And gif it be ane beaſt, ane buke being placed betvvix the hornes of the beaſt, or vpon his forehead, and he and his vvitnes, at the leaſt tvva, ſall ſvveare that, that beaſt did vvaver avvay from him, as he affirmed in his clame; and that he vvas not given, nor ſauld be him to any man, in any maner of vvay."
- 17 Of the wits: to become confused or unsteady; to reel. figuratively, intransitive, obsolete
"I am hungry, and I am vveary, and I cannot find him. / Keep my wits heaven, I feele 'em wavering, / O God my head."
- 18 To cause (someone or something) to move back and forth. obsolete, transitive
"[I]f the Admirall ſhall happen to hull in the night: then to make a wauering light ouer his other light, wauering the light vpon a pole."
- 19 To cause (someone) to begin to or show signs of weakening in resolve; also (rare), to weaken in resolve due to (something). obsolete, transitive
"Th'vnconſtant Barrons, vvauering euery houre, / The fierce encounter of this raging tyde, / No ſtrategem yet ſtrongly policied; […]"
Proper Noun
- 1 A river in northern Cumbria, England, which flows into the Solway Firth.
Antonyms
Example
""Thus while they waver and, perplex with doubt, / urge diverse counsels, and in parts divide, / lo, from the citadel, foremost of a rout, / breathless Laocoon runs, and from afar cries out: / 'Ah! wretched townsmen! do ye think the foe / gone, or that guileless are their gifts? O blind / with madness! Thus Ulysses do ye know?'""
Common questions
What is a synonym for "waver"?
Common synonyms include: falter, adventure, alternate, back and fill, baulk, beat.
How do you use "waver" in a sentence?
"Thus while they waver and, perplex with doubt, / urge diverse counsels, and in parts divide, / lo, from the citadel, foremost of a rout, / breathless Laocoon runs, and from afar cries out: / 'Ah! wretched townsmen! do ye think the foe / gone, or that guileless are their gifts? O blind / with madness! Thus Ulysses do ye know?'"
How do you pronounce "waver"?
Pronounced /ˈweɪvə/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
The verb is derived from Middle English waveren (“to move back and forth, swing; to move unsteadily, totter; to shake, tremble; to wander; (figurative) to be changeable or unstable; to deviate”), and then possibly: * from Old English (compare Old English wǣfre (“flickering, quivering, wavering; active, nimble (?)”)), related to Old English wafian (“to wave”) from Proto-West Germanic *wabbjan (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wabjaną (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”); and/or * from Old Norse vafra (“to move unsteadily, flicker”), probably related to vefa (“to weave”); both from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Doublet of wave. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology 2
From wave (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).
Etymology 3
Origin uncertain, possibly from waive (“(obsolete) to disregard, overlook”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary the early forms waiver, wayver, weaver indicate that the word is probably not derived from wave (verb).