waggle

present singular third person waggles · participle present waggling · participle past waggled · past waggled

1. transitiveTo move (something) with short, quick motions; to wobble.

   Oscar turned to someone who wasn't there and waggled his head. "Hoo, boy," he said.

   1958 May, Avram Davidson, “Or All The Seas With Oysters”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, page 56

   1 more example

   The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions.

   1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo quickly raise and lower in rapid succession, usually as an implication of slyness, smugness, or suggestiveness.
3. intransitiveTo reel, sway, or move from side to side; to move with a wagging motion; to waddle.

   I know you by the waggling of your head.

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   2 more examples

   Why do you go Nodding and Waggling so like a Fool, as if you were Hipshot? says the Goose to her Gosselin.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   The tassel on the end of his pigtail waggled all down the path and, as he turned out of the gate, it gave a special little flip.

   1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small

plural waggles

1. An instance of waggling.
2. A wobbling motion.

   Give the cable a waggle to let it come out quicker.

3. golfThe preliminary swinging of the club head back and forth over the ball in the line of the proposed stroke.