Wabash, verb (American).—To cheat, swindle, victimise.
Wabble (or
Wobble), verb
(old, and still
colloquial).—1. To rock from
side to side, move unsteadily,
sway unevenly. Hence (2) to
vacillate, play 'fast and loose,'
'blow hot and cold.' Whence
as subs. = unsteady movement,
fickleness, vacillation; wabbly
= unsteady, shaky, rocky {q.v.);
wabbler = a waverer, shuffler,
trimmer. Also wibble-wabble
(a reduplication). [Johnson: 'a
low barbarous word.']
1862. Spencer, First Principles, 170. When . . . the top falls on the table . . . it falls into a certain oscillation, described by the expressive though inelegant word—wobbling.
1876. Times, 21 Oct. The wabbling of the shot, owing to the imperfect fit, has been the great drawback.
1879-89. Grove, Dict. Music, III. 509. Ferri . . . made use of the tremolo upon every note, to such an extent that his whole singing was a bad wobbling trill.
1883. Gurney [Nineteenth Century, xiii. 446]. Dismal sounds may express dismal emotions, and soft sounds soft emotions, and wabbly sounds uncertain emotions.
1898. Clark Russell, Jack's Courtship, xx. The wind had raised a middling stiff wobble on the water.
3. (Western American).—To make free use of one's tongue, to be ready of lip (q.v.). Hence wabbler = a fluent speaker, a chattering fool.
Wabbler, subs. (provincial).—1.
A boiled leg of mutton.
2. See Wabble.
Wack. See Whack.
Wad, subs. (American).—A roll of
bank-notes; hence generic for
money: see Rhino.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. Many scores of these philanthropists, who have spent their lives in looking for men to enrich, whilst anxious only to make a small wad for themselves, have I encountered.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 102. Even in these days I knew a thing or two about poker, and it would have required George Appo himself to have touched me for my wad.
Waddle, verb (old).—'To go
like a duck' (B. E.), to toddle,
shamble, slouch. Hence, as subs.
(or waddling) = an ungainly
walk, a wabbling (q.v.) gait.
Also derivatives: waddler,
waddly, waddlingly, etc.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 37. Then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, She could have run and waddled all about.
1605. Drayton, Mooncalf. 'They tread and waddle all the goodly grass, That in the field there scarce a corner was Left free by them.'
