waver

Meaning

Verb

1. (intransitive) To swing or wave, especially in the air, wind, etc.; to flutter.
2. (dated, intransitive) To move without purpose or a specified destination; to roam, to wander.
3. (archaic, intransitive) To sway back and forth, as if about to fall; to reel, to stagger, to totter.
4. (figuratively, intransitive) To begin to weaken or show signs of weakening in resolve; to falter, to flinch, to give way.
5. (figuratively, intransitive) To feel or show doubt or indecision; to be indecisive between choices; to vacillate.
6. (figuratively, intransitive) Of a body part such as an eye or hand, or the voice: to become unsteady; to shake, to tremble.
7. (figuratively, intransitive) Of light, shadow, or a partly obscured thing: to flicker, to glimmer, to quiver.
8. (figuratively, intransitive) Chiefly of a quality or thing: to change, to fluctuate, to vary.
9. (intransitive, obsolete) Followed by from: to deviate from a course; to stray, to wander.
10. (figuratively, intransitive, obsolete) Of the wits: to become confused or unsteady; to reel.
11. (obsolete, transitive) To cause (someone or something) to move back and forth.
12. (obsolete, transitive) To cause (someone) to begin to or show signs of weakening in resolve; also (rare), to weaken in resolve due to (something).

Noun

1. An act of moving back and forth, swinging, or waving; a flutter, a tremble.
2. (figuratively) A state of beginning to weaken or showing signs of weakening in resolve; a falter.
3. (figuratively) A state of feeling or showing doubt or indecision; a vacillation.

Noun

1. One who waves their arms, or causes something to swing or wave.
2. A person who specializes in treating hair to make it wavy.
3. A tool used to make hair wavy.
4. (historical) In full waver roller: a roller which places ink on the inking table of a printing press with a back and forth, waving motion.
5. (obsolete) Synonym of waverer (“one who feels or shows doubt or indecision; a vacillator”).

Noun

A sapling or other young tree left standing when other trees around it have been felled.

Synonyms

hesitate

vacillate

falter

sway

wobble

fluctuate

stagger

flicker

swing

flutter

tremble

quiver

shake

🫨

totter

oscillate

shiver

rock

🪨

quaver

be uncertain

waffle

🧇

dither

change

vary

irresolute

move

reel

be irresolute

wince

doubt

flitter

undulate

roll

hesitation

dilly-dally

wabble

flounder

operate

careen

vibrate

weave

stir

flap

teeter

shift

shilly shally

run

shilly-shally

faltering

hover

hang back

Translations

vacilar

barguigner

hésiter

schwanken

vacillare

wankelen

waggelen

aarzelen

wiebelen

esitare

vacilar

titubare

zögern

oscilar

bibberen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈweɪ.və(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: waveren

Cognate with Old English: wǣfre

In summary

The verb is derived from Middle English waveren (“to move back and forth, swing; to move unsteadily, totter; to shake, tremble; to wander; (figurative) to be changeable or unstable; to deviate”), and then possibly:
* from Old English (compare Old English wǣfre (“flickering, quivering, wavering; active, nimble (?)”)), related to Old English wafian (“to wave”) from Proto-West Germanic *wabbjan (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wabjaną (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”); and/or
* from Old Norse vafra (“to move unsteadily, flicker”), probably related to vefa (“to weave”);
both from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Doublet of wave.
The noun is derived from the verb.