wigwag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwɪɡwaɡ/
ipa: /ˈwɪɡˌwæɡ/
homophone: WGWAG (General American)
Forms: form: wigwags
form: wigwagging
form: wigwagged
form: wigwagged
form: wig-wag
Etymology: From wig (“to wag, waggle”) + wag (“to swing”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Senses: glosses: To move gently in one direction and then another; to wig or wiggle, to wag or waggle.
examples: text: Beautiful tails, O, beautiful tails, / Thy gentle wigwag is joyous and queer; / How to our hearts thy switchery tells / Tails of the past ever dear.
ref: 1872, Charles T[hurber] Miller, Frog Opera, with Pollywog Chorus. A Burletta Founded upon the Nursery Tale and Old Song of A Frog He Would a Wooing Go, Boston, Mass.: Alfred Mudge & Son, printers, No. 34 School Street, →OCLC, act I, page 6:
text: We saw the daw get on the back of the sow. The tail of the sow went wig, wag, wig, wag, and all the daw did was Caw, caw, caw, caw.
ref: 1871, George Gill, “Letter Exercises”, in The Illustrated Series of Technical Reading Books. First Standard (Gill's School Series), Liverpool: The Educational Trading Co., Limited, 9 & 10, St. Bride's Avenue; Fleet Street, E.C.; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; George Philip & Son [et al.], →OCLC, page 14:
text: I wish people were less bound by custom in small matters,—like taking off hats, observing certain forms, and following certain fashions. It is ridiculous that the whole tribe must all do alike, or perish! Simon says up; Simon says down; Simon says wigwag; all wigwag! But not without Simon says so, or there'll be a forfeit. It is very well to play a play once in a while; but as for making life one everlasting game of wigwag, I don't believe in it.
ref: 1874, Abby Morton Diaz, “Letter XIX. Lucy Maria’s Answer to Maggie.”, in Lucy Maria, Boston, Mass.: James R. Osgood and Company, (late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 132:
text: "It is the Festa della Madonna dei Capri—the Feast of Our Lady of the Goats. We have it every single year. Everybody is out!" […] The goats, fairly strutting with pride, however, are the most ludicrous members of these amazing cavalcades, for they have bouquets attached with wire and toothpicks to twisted horns and even to their sub-tails, which wigwag signals as they bob along with arched necks.
ref: 1912 November, Arthur Stanley Riggs, “Addio, Sicilia!”, in Vistas in Sicily, New York, N.Y.: McBridge, Nast & Company, →OCLC, page 250:
text: Environmental and health risks wigwagged by Rachel Carson and Jacques-Yves Cousteau led to the National Environmental Policy Act.
ref: 1999, Edward Wenk, Jr., “Survival—to be Alive and Free”, in The Double Helix: Technology and Democracy in the American Future, Stamford, Conn.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, page 95:
text: On the podium a goalkeeper was moving back and forth, sideways, in front of the full-scribbled goal behind him, uneasily wagging his hands to and fro, wigwagging.
ref: 2015, Bertil Dunér, chapter 5, in Little Counsellor, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 28:
glosses: An act of wigwagging.
examples: text: Then the headlights swept around the last bend in the track and the train was bearing down on us from less than a block away. The engineer saw us and started leaning on the horn. He was going way too fast. The train whistle kept blaring as the white headlamp on the lead car wigwagged back and forth, strobing the car as the train thundered toward us.
ref: 2011, Stephen J[oseph] Cannell, Vigilante (A Shane Scully Novel; 11), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN:
glosses: To oscillate between two states.
examples: text: He had no prearranged signals for explaining the presence of the two Americans, but when the planes returned to check his messages, he wigwagged: "No Japanese. No signs," and then led Krickel and his daughter to where they could be clearly seen. The lead plane dipped its wings alterately and flew back toward Dutch Harbor.
ref: 1988, James A[lbert] Michener, “The Railbelt”, in Alaska: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2014, →ISBN, page 905:
text: The steam whistle emitted three long blasts as the Carondelet headed into the stream, along with the echoing of sound from the signal cannon. As they passed each of the troop ships, a mighty cheer rose from the men. [General William Tecumseh] Sherman had a signalman wigwag a message of good luck and Godspeed to each.
ref: 2007, Nelson A. Reed, “April 15, 1866: The Mississippi”, in With Your Shield Shining: A Novel of the Second Civil War 1863–1866, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To send a signal by waving a flag to and fro.
Synonyms: wag
waggle
wig
wiggle
Derived terms: wigwagger
wigwaggy
Related terms: zigzag