Word: waffle Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The verb is borrowed from Scots waffle (“to waver, flap, flutter”), from waff (“to wag, wave; to flap, flutter”) + -le (diminutive or frequentative suffix), from Middle Scots waff (“signal; gust of wind; glimpse; a flapping, waving”), from Northern Middle English wafe, waffe, a variant of waven (“to move to and fro, sway; to stray, wander; (figuratively) to follow a weaving course; (figuratively) to vacillate, waver; to move something to and fro, wave”) (whence wave), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to sway; to wander”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Regarding sense 5 (“to speak or write (something) at length without any clear aim or point”), compare Old English wæflian (“to talk foolishly”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Germanic *babalōną (“to babble, chatter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- (“to say”) and/or Proto-Indo-European *baba- (“to talk vaguely; to mumble”). The Oxford English Dictionary does not derive the English word waffle from this Old English word. Compare also Dutch wauwelen (“to linger, waffle, jabber, gab, chat”). The noun is derived from the verb. Pronunciation: /ˈwɒf.əl/, [wɒf.əl] ~ [wɒf.l̩], /ˈwɑf.əl/, [wɑf.əl] ~ [wɑf.l̩], /ˈwɔf.əl/ 1. To speak or write evasively or vaguely. Labels: UK, intransitive Example: He waffled on for much of the earnings call without addressing the fall in share price. Example: Again the answer was "waffled," for this did not say that no air units had been alerted. Only that none had been "identified." Moreover, the reply concerned air "unit[s]" as opposed to "air craft". 2. Of a bird: to move in a side-to-side motion while descending before landing. Labels: intransitive Example: The geese waffled as they approached the water. 3. Of an aircraft or motor vehicle: to travel in a slow and unhurried manner. Labels: colloquial, intransitive 4. To be indecisive about something; to dither, to vacillate, to waver. Labels: Scotland, colloquial, intransitive Example: I waffled between going to the deposition and going to the doctor's. Wishing Barbara was there, I decided to call the doctor afterward. Example: But as Germany struggles to overcome its post-World War II reluctance to lead on security matters in Europe and set aside its instinct to accommodate rather than confront Russia, Europe’s most pivotal country has waffled in the first crucial test for the new government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. 5. Often followed by on: to speak or write (something) at length without any clear aim or point; to ramble. Labels: ambitransitive Example: Unless you have a great line in gags or repartee don't waffle on aimlessly to your audience, or make in-jokes among yourselves, the band or the compere/DJ. Example: Before getting down to the nitty gritty of beekeeping, most contributors to BBJ like to waffle on for a bit about the weather, the state of their garden or something equally inconsequential. 6. To hold horizontally and rotate (one's hand) back and forth in a gesture of ambivalence or vacillation. Labels: transitive Example: “[…] You get anything useful on the background checks?” / He waffled his hand. “Nothing like what you brought back, but still some interesting notes.[…]”