Log in or Sign up
  1. waffle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A light crisp battercake baked in a waffle iron.
  2. v. To speak or write evasively.
  3. v. To speak, write, or act evasively about.
  4. n. Evasive or vague speech or writing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A particular kind of batter cake baked in waffle-irons and served hot.
  2. To wave; fluctuate.
  3. To bark incessantly.

Wiktionary

  1. n. countable A flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern.
  2. n. countable, UK A potato waffle, a savoury flat potato cake with the same kind of grid pattern.
  3. v. To smash.
  4. n. uncountable Speech or writing that is vague, pretentious or evasive.
  5. v. of birds To move in a side-to-side motion and descend (lose altitude) before landing. Cf wiffle, whiffle.
  6. v. To speak or write vaguely and evasively.
  7. v. To speak or write at length without any clear point or aim.
  8. v. To vacillate.
  9. v. transitive To rotate (one's hand) back and forth in a gesture of vacillation or ambivalence.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A thin cake baked and then rolled; a wafer.
  2. n. A soft indented cake cooked in a waffle iron.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. pancake batter baked in a waffle iron
  2. v. pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness

Etymologies

  1. From the Scots waffle, "to waver, to flutter", a variation of the Scots waff ("to flutter, to wave", related to wave), with the suffix -le added. Alternatively, perhaps derived from waff, an imitation of a dog's (unintelligible and thus meaningless) yelp (cf woof). Also note Old English wæflian ("to talk foolishly"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Dutch wafel, from Middle Dutch wāfel. Probably frequentative of obsolete waff, to yelp, probably of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. wafer
  1. chatter
  1. blow hot and cold

hyponyms (10)

Words that are more specific

  1. dwell on
  2. waver
  1. linger
  2. linger over
  1. oscillate
  2. vibrate
  1. hover
  2. boggle
  1. vacillate
  2. falter

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. pancake
  2. pastry
  3. fritter
  4. bacon
  1. cornbread
  2. toast
  3. porridge
  4. croissant
  1. omelet
  2. pasta
  3. gingerbread
  4. cutlet
  1. custard
  2. tortilla
  3. biscuit
  4. cracker
  1. oatmeal
  2. macaroni
  3. brownie
  4. ice cream
  1. marmalade
  2. yogurt

rhymes (2)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. awful
  1. falafel

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. Belgian waffle
  1. gofer
  1. waffle
  1. gofering-iron
  1. waffle iron
  1. gopher

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. awesome

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘waffle’.

More lists containing ‘waffle’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • reesetee I agree. Nor, if I had a post, would I leave it in Afghanistan. Jan 28, 2009

  • plethora But, but, but... why would anyone leave their waffles behind? I mean, waffles are delicious; they're the first thing I packed when I left the Falkland Islands.

    Etymological debate, what? Jan 28, 2009

  • sionnach "AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HELPS TORTURE VICTIMS IN AFGHANISTAN" Jan 28, 2009

  • skipvia That's way better than "SOLDIERS ABANDON POSTS IN AFGHANISTAN." Jan 28, 2009

  • chained_bear No, you're not the only one. But I must admit, I just assumed* it meant that some British people left their waffles there.

    *not really. Jan 27, 2009

  • Prolagus Oh, ha ha ha! Jan 27, 2009

  • cbw "BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLANDS"

    Am I the only one that had a laugh at this headline? Jan 27, 2009

  • kewpid Sure thing, reesetee! Jan 27, 2009

  • reesetee I love that in this discussion, someone can use the words "prolix" and "windbag" in the same sentence. Thanks, kewpid. :-) Jan 27, 2009

  • sionnach It seems as if nobody is wrong in this debate. From the Etymological Dictionary online:

    waffle (v.)
    1698, "to yelp, bark," frequentative of waff "to yelp" (1610); possibly of imitative origin. Figurative sense of "talk foolishly" (1701) led to that of "vacillate, equivocate" (1803), originally a Scottish and northern Eng. usage. Jan 27, 2009

  • yarb My BrE puts me 100% in camp Bilby. Jan 27, 2009

  • kewpid I subscribe to bilby's definition. To waffle on is to be prolix or a windbag. Jan 27, 2009

  • vanishedone How about the noun corresponding to the 'blather inconsequentially' sense? Writing advice for undergrads. in my Dept. (Durham, U.K.) tells them to avoid 'waffle: a waste of your time and the reader's'; I'd naturally read that as waffling in the sense of going on and on pointlessly. Jan 27, 2009

  • bilby Note that it's usually in the phrasal form, waffle on.

    Or with strawberries. Jan 27, 2009

  • chained_bear I hereby confess I'm less of a global citizen than I wished. I hadn't heard bilby's definition either.

    (Though, let it be said, that isn't entirely unusual.)

    And let's just remember that waffles are really good. Mmm... buttery syrupy goodness... and then a good blood-sugar crash. Jan 27, 2009

  • pterodactyl Ladies and gentlemen, I think what we have here is a cultural divide. Here in the US, the word is commonly understood to have the meaning that rolig described (dithering, repeatedly changing one's mind, failing to take a steady stance on an issue). Clinton was one famous target of this word; another was John Kerry, who was accused of both "waffling" and "flip-flopping".

    I also want to say that the "be verbose" meaning is completely unknown here -- certainly it's unknown to me -- but before I make such a strong statement, I need some unscientific confirmation from my fellow American Wordies.

    Help me out, guys. Do you find bilby's definition as alien as I do?

    (Edit: while I was typing this, sionnach came along and defended both meanings, which leads me to suspect that he's not merely a gentleman, but also a world traveler and a global citizen.) Jan 27, 2009

  • sionnach I agree with rolig: though I have heard it used in the sense of blathering on, or rambling, the primary meaning I associate with it is dithering - a failure to take a firm position on an issue. It seems to me that the (apocryphal) newspaper headline

    "BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLANDS"

    is more consistent with the 'dithering' sense. Jan 27, 2009

  • vanishedone The 1989 O.E.D. says the dither meaning is 'orig. Sc. and north. dial. Now colloq. or non-Standard.' Judging by Rolig's comment, maybe it's made a comeback since, though the only new addition from 1993 is a new sense: 'Of an aircraft or motor vehicle: to cruise along in a leisurely manner, usu. at low speed. colloq. (orig. R.A.F.).'

    The 'talk verbosely and inconsequentially' sense is attested from 1701 and treated as current; it's the sense I'm familiar with too. Jan 27, 2009

  • plethora I'm with you b, that's how I would use it as well.
    Rolig, I would say it is much the same as '"to ramble". Jan 27, 2009

  • rolig The meaning of waffle as a verb that I am most familiar with is "to waver, keep changing one's mind," which sort of fits Weirdnet's definition. The verb waffle has become part of the US political jargon; candidates are fond of accusing their opponents of "waffling" on certain issues – which often refers to their opponent taking a more nuanced position on a complex and controversial subject rather than simply making an absolute ideological pronouncement. Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign was regularly accused of waffling on the issues, which led to Gary Trudeau using a floating, wobbly waffle (with various amounts of butter on it) as his cartoon icon for Bill Clinton in the Doonesbury comic strip.

    Bilby, I'm not familiar with the phrase "to waffle on" in the sense of "to be verbose". Is this the same as saying "to ramble on" – to talk on and on without making a lot of sense? Jan 27, 2009

  • bilby It's sad :-(

    I'm not familiar with the verbal definition given by WeirdNet. It also doesn't list the verbal use I hear quite commonly, ie. to waffle on - to be verbose, to palaver. Jan 27, 2009

  • chained_bear That poem makes me sad, and at the same time I want to crack their heads together and tell them to make up. Jan 27, 2009

  • bilby
    In four years of marriage
    we never made a waffle
    and now we're fighting about the waffle iron.

    - Barrett Warner, The Waffle Iron. Jan 27, 2009

  • oroboros Wow! That's about 500 more than there are Waffle Houses. Good show!! Oct 19, 2008

  • Prolagus This is my 2000th word on Wordie. Oct 11, 2008

  • lampbane Penny Arcade (03/28/08):

    "Can't you hear them? Can't you hear the waffles?" May 14, 2008

  • plethora "I like a waffle because a waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap. A waffle says to the syrup, 'Hold on now. You ain't goin' anywhere. Don't even think about tryin' to creep down the sides. Just rest in these squares! When one square is full, move onto the next one. When you hit the butter, split up!!'"
    --Mitch Hedberg Apr 6, 2008

  • toonacious_d "Where's my waffles?!" - Cotton Hill from the animated series, King Of The Hill Dec 1, 2007

  • chained_bear In a world without W...
    "A fine word like 'waffle'
    Would turn out just 'affle.'
    Oh, double-u's grand as can beeeee..."
    --Bert (of Sesame Street)

    Every time I see this word, I want to eat a waffle. Oct 27, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for waffle.

‘waffle’ has been looked up 3559 times, loved by 6 people, added to 71 lists, commented on 29 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.