waver

Meaning

Verb

1. To sway back and forth; to totter or reel.
2. To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light.
3. To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch.
4. To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice.
5. To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way.
6. To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.

Noun

1. An act of wavering, vacillating, etc.
2. Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc.
3. Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment).
4. A tool that accomplishes hair waving.
5. A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈweɪ.və(ɹ)/

Etymology

From Middle English waveren, from Old Norse vafra (“to flicker”), akin to Old English wǣfre (“restless, wavering”). Related to wave.