Meanings
comparative more wamble-cropped · superlative most wamble-cropped · alternative wamble-cropt · alternative womblety-cropped
- Nauseated; also, feeling sick or unsettled in the stomach.First known use mid 16th c.
When she'd read her letter through, she went into the house agin, looking as peaked and wamble-cropped as a sick lamb.
1843, Jonathan Slick [pseudonym; Ann Sophia Stephens], “Letter XI. Visit to the Park Theatre.—First Impressions of the Poetry of Motion, as Written on the Air, in the Ærial Fetes of Mademoiselle Celeste.—First Shock at the Exhibition of a Ballet Costumè, Accompanied by the ‘Twinkles’ of Celeste’s Feet—with Her Pigeon Wings, Double-shuffles, Gallopades and Pirouettes.”, in High Life in New York, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Edward Stephens, Brother Jonathan Office, […], →OCLC, page 47, column 14 more examples
[A prattler or babbler] inquireth further, hovv many columnes are in the Odeus: and yeſterday he ſayth, I vvas vvamble-cropt, and (ſauing your preſence) parbrak't: And vvhat day of the moneth is this? But if any man lend him attention, he ſhall neuer be cleare of him.
a. 1611 (date written), Theophrastus, “Theophrasti Characteres Ethicæ: Theophrastus His Morall Characters: Or Description of Maners. 3. Of Garrulitie.”, in Jo[hn] Healey, transl., Epictetus Manuall. Cebes Table. Theophrastus Characters, London: […] R. B[adger?] and are to be sold by Iohn Stafford, published 1636, →OCLC, page 14I rode over early to ask if you'd put up for the Wilton hunt, and found your furniture here unpackin' and Dennis lookin' on, like a wamble-cropped sentryman.
1898, Bernard Capes, chapter XIX, in The Lake of Wine (Appletons’ Town and Country Library; no. 239), D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 128He was wamble-cropped in the bowels, complaining of stomach pains and cramps, followed by bouts of uncontrollable diarrhea.
2007, Michael [C.] White, chapter 2, in Soul Catcher, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 21Mornings, they craunch clove / stems to freshen raffish breath. The buck- / fever, wamble-cropped air swells with / the spiced aroma, humming like a / pawky gadabout through cough-filled halls.
2022, Michael Fraser, “Goshen”, in The Day-breakers, Windsor, Ont.: Biblioasis, →ISBN, page 24Synonyms: crapulous, barfy, mawkish, nauseated, nauseatic, pukey, pukish, queasy
- figurativelyFeeling uneasy; anxious, worried.
[W]hen he asked me if I was scared of the Bunkers, it nettled me; […] I felt just as good as any one, but I was a little wamble-cropped when I thought that I shouldn't know how to behave.
1922, [John] Herbert Quick, “I Save a Treasure, and Start a Feud”, in Vandemark’s Folly, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 2671 more example
They went off grumbling, and consarnedly wamble-cropped, for a reward had been offered for the purty French gal's brother, and the etarnal scamp meant to git his revenge on her and money to boot.
1843, Jonathan Slick [pseudonym; Ann Sophia Stephens], “Letter XI. Visit to the Park Theatre.—First Impressions of the Poetry of Motion, as Written on the Air, in the Ærial Fetes of Mademoiselle Celeste.—First Shock at the Exhibition of a Ballet Costumè, Accompanied by the ‘Twinkles’ of Celeste’s Feet—with Her Pigeon Wings, Double-shuffles, Gallopades and Pirouettes.”, in High Life in New York, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Edward Stephens, Brother Jonathan Office, […], →OCLC, page 47, column 2
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveNauseated; also, feeling sick or unsettled in the stomach.
Origin
From wamble (“uneasiness in the stomach; nausea”) + crop (“(Britain, dialectal, especially Scotland) stomach”) + -ed (suffix forming possessional adjectives).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish vatsa sekaisin
- vatsa sekaisinfeeling sick or unsettled in the stomach
Cite this entry
wamble-cropped. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wamble-cropped
“wamble-cropped.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wamble-cropped. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wamble-cropped,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wamble-cropped.
Source: wamble-cropped on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.