waggle (v.)

late 15c. (implied in waggling), frequentative of wag (v.). Compare Dutch waggelen "to waggle," Old High German wagon "to move, shake," German wackeln "to totter." Transitive sense from 1590s. Related: Waggled.

Entries linking to waggle

wag (v.)

early 13c. (intransitive), "waver, vacillate, lack steadfastness," probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse vagga "a cradle," Danish vugge "rock a cradle," Old Swedish wagga "fluctuate, rock" a cradle), and in part from Old English wagian "move backwards and forwards;" all from Proto-Germanic *wag- (source also of Old High German weggen, Gothic wagjan "to wag"), probably from PIE root *wegh- "to go, move, transport in a vehicle."

Transitive meaning "move (something) back and forth or up and down" is from c. 1300; of dogs and their tails from mid-15c.: "and whanne they [hounds] see the hure maystre they wol make him cheere and wagge hur tayles upon him." [Edward, Duke of York, "The Master of Game," 1456]. Related: Wagged; wagging. Wag-at-the-wall (1825) was an old name for a hanging clock with pendulum and weights exposed.

wangle (v.)

"obtain something by trickery," 1888, originally British printer's slang for "fake by manipulation;" perhaps an alteration of waggle, or of wankle (now dialectal) "unsteady, fickle," from Old English wancol (see wench (n.)). Brought into wider use by World War I soldiers.

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Definitions of waggle

waggle (v.)

move from side to side;

Synonyms: wag

waggle (v.)

move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion;

Synonyms: wamble

waggle (n.)

causing to move repeatedly from side to side;

Synonyms: wag / shake

From wordnet.princeton.edu

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