WHIFFLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Whiffle

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verb

Whiffle v. i. (past & past part. whiffled; pres. part. whiffling)

To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.

To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle. "A person of whiffing and unsteady turn of mind can not keep close to a point of controversy."

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Etymology of 'Whiffle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whiffle" Quotes from Famous Books

... uncertain. To whiffle to hesitate; waver; prevaricate. cf. Tillotson, Sermons, xiv (1671-94): 'Everyman ought to be stedfast ... and not suffer himself to be whiffled ... by an insignificant noise.' 1724 mistakenly ...

— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn

... allowed his eyes to run over a scene already familiar and always of the greatest attraction to him. Then came what he called, after his Malory, the Stumps Perilous. Between them there was but just room to drive—in fact the delicate points of the whiffle tree scratched the polished surfaces of them on either hand. Bobby loved to imagine them as the mighty guardians of the land beyond, and he always held his breath until they had been ...

— The Adventures of Bobby Orde • Stewart Edward White

... This is Sir Whisky Whiffle. He is one of those mincing, tittering, tip-toe, tripping animalculae of the times, that flutter about fine women like flies in a flower garden; as harmless, and as constant as their shadows, they dangle by the side of beauty like part of their ...

— A Lecture On Heads • Geo. Alex. Stevens

... his mind, then," returned the other, as one expresses a slight degree of surprise at hearing that which was new to him. "Watson is apt to whiffle about, though a prime fellow, if you can once fasten to him, and get him into blue water. Does your schooner go out ...

— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper