whiffle

Meanings

Noun

• A short blow or gust.
• Something small or insignificant; a trifle.
• A fife or small flute.

Verb

• To blow a short gust.
• To waffle, talk aimlessly.
• To waste time.
• To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
• 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.
• To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
• To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
• To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
• To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.

Origin

• 1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le and sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.