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Whiffle
Definitions
- 1 A short blow or gust.
- 2 A male haircut done with electric clippers. Maine
- 3 Something small or insignificant; a trifle. obsolete
- 4 A fife or small flute. obsolete
- 1 To blow a short gust.
- 2 To waffle, talk aimlessly.
- 3 To waste time. UK
- 4 To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
- 5 To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
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- 6 To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about. intransitive
"[S]ometimes it may happen that ſuch a Cloud may appear ſeveral Mornings and Evenings, and we may not feel the effects of it, or but very little; yet we always provide againſt it; for a North never comes without ſuch a foreboding Cloud. But if the VVinds also vvhiffle about to the South, with fair flattering VVeather, it never fails."
- 7 To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle. transitive
- 8 To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
"[A] Perſon of whiffling and unſteady Turn of Mind, who cannot keep cloſe to a Point of Controverſy, […]"
- 9 To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.
"This is a plain and obvious ſenſe of this Promiſe, […] againſt ſuch as would whiffle away all theſe Truths by reſolving them into a mere moral Allegorie."
Etymology
1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.
1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.
See also for "whiffle"
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