Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piper or fifer.
- n. A herald or usher; a person who leads the way, or prepares the way, for another: probably so called because the pipers (see piper,1) usually led the procession.
- n. One who whiffles; one who changes frequently his opinion or course; one who uses shifts and evasions in argument; a fickle or unsteady person.
- n. A puffer of tobacco; a whiffer.
- n. The whistlewing, or goldeneye duck.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete One who whiffles, or frequently changes his or her opinion or course.
- n. obsolete One who argues evasively; a trifler.
- n. obsolete One who plays on a whiffle; a fifer or piper.
- n. obsolete An officer who went before a procession to clear the way, by blowing a horn or otherwise; hence, any person who marched at the head of a procession; a harbinger.
- n. US, dialect The goldeneye.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who whiffles, or frequently changes his opinion or course; one who uses shifts and evasions in argument; hence, a trifler.
- n. obsolete One who plays on a whiffle; a fifer or piper.
- n. An officer who went before procession to clear the way by blowing a horn, or otherwise; hence, any person who marched at the head of a procession; a harbinger.
- n. (Zoöl), Local, U. S. The golden-eye.
Etymologies
- whiffle + -er (Wiktionary)
Examples
“(G. B.) {355} The 'whiffler' was the official sword-flourisher of the”
“Let LOVE and me talk together a little on this subject — be it a young conscience, or love, or thyself, Jack, thou seest that I am for giving every whiffler audience.”
“Norman arch behind the mayor, — but likewise with Snap, and with whiffler, quart pot, and frying-pan, Billy Blind and”
“Ernie is a thistle whiffler and he whiffles thistles with a thistle whiffler.”
“Only time he might have had a go, Ralphy had pinched his whiffler.”
“They pointed out, angrily, that the function of the whiffler was merely to go through a pantomime of making a clear space for the dance that was to follow.”
“After a bit, Ralphy turned up and gave Ernie his whiffler.”
“She also saw Ernie come charging offstage without his whiffler and in a roaring rage himself.”
“Stayne returned the whiffler and went on round the wall to the O.P. entrance.”
““Suppose,” Carey said, “Ernie lost his temper with the old chap, and gave a kind of swipe, or suppose he was just fooling with that murderous sharp whiffler of his and — and — well, without us noticing while the Guiser was laying doggo behind the stone — Ar, hell!””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘whiffler’.
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phrontistery-w
from phrontistery.info
wack, wadmal, waftage, wafture, wagonette, wagtail, wainage, wainscot, wair, waits, wakerife, waldflute and 282 more...
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When In Entropic~al English Locales.....
Care about your social environment? Save these endangered words from extinction... don't delay, adopt an out~of~date adjective today!
englishable, toesmithing, zwimmer, woad, wherefore, bobance, pediluvium, ruff, anteloquy, februation, lungeous, chalm and 357 more...
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Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
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Negative
caitiff, valetudinarian, fell, whiffler, attercop, Shaitan, Jezebel, desultory, panjandrum, limmer, cockalorum, laodicean and 91 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, W
washboard, winterbourne, winze, wirble, waterway, windrow, winceyette, waft, whiffletree, wheelbarrow, whicker, wacky and 170 more...
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Odessa's Words
defenestration, decathect, effulgent, taciturn, ataraxia, coprophagous, nyctitropic, pernicious, paradox, anachronism, synesthesia, cacophony and 223 more...
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Just ducky
bufflehead, merganser, canvasback, muscovy, smew, pochard, shoveler, goosander, teal, seaduck, sheldrake, mallard and 66 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for whiffler.

erinmckean In "Murder Must Advertise," Whifflers were those who participated in Wimsey's advertising scheme for Whifflets cigarettes -- "Whiffling Round Britain". "The great Whifflers' Club practically founded itself, and Whifflers who had formed attachments while Whiffling in company, secured special Whifflet coupons entitling them to a Whifflet wedding with a Whifflet cake and their photographs in the papers." Dec 2, 2009
bodgaoithe The verb whiffler as ‘one who whiffles’ is a folk etymology. The old nouns in -er are denominative, that is, from nouns, not verbs. That noun is whiffle, in Old English wifel; wyfle ‘ax’ in Middle English. See the great halberds brandished by Swiss Guards or Tower of London Beefeaters or sergeants-at-arms (German Weibel) in court processions. Feldwebel is ‘corporal’. See George Borrow 1857 Romany Rye: “Nobody can use his fists without being taught the use of them,..no more than any one can ‘whiffle’ without being taught by a master of the art... The last of the whifflers hanged himself about a fortnight ago ... there being no demand for whiffling since the discontinuation of Guildhall banquets; … let any one take up the old chap’s sword and try to whiffle.” Borrow’s whiffler was a performer; a parading worthy is a swaggerer. Puny volcanoes that unlike Aetna & Vesuvius erupt without great violence were dubbed whifflers by George Borrow (Tin Trumpet); he likened them to stogie-flashing wannabes. Sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar. Dec 2, 2009
missanthropist An officer who preceeds a procession, clearing the way and playing a flute.
William Toone's Glossary of Obsolete and Uncommon Words, 1832 May 16, 2008