[f. WAG v. + -ER1.]
† 1. One who agitates or stirs. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 189. And so þat name was to hem i-schappe Centauri, as it were an hundred wynde waggers: for þey wagged wel þe wynde faste in hir ridynge.
b. One who wags (his head).
1654. Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston), Diary (S.H.S.), II. 249. Thes revylers, waggers of their head, mockers, theives against Christ on the crosse.
2. An animal that wags its tail.
1837. Meredith, Poet. Wks. (1912), 346. Should they once deem our emblem Pard Wasser of tail for all save war.
1911. Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, vi. 89. Corker [a bulldog] … had ever been wistful to be noticed by any one—effusively grateful for every word or pat, an ever-ready wagger and nuzzler, to none ineffable.
3. pl. The divining-rod. dial. ? Obs.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., X 3. No one … could affirm that there were this or that particular Mine, that owed its Discovery to his Waggers, (for by that Name they then called them) some Miners told me that by his Waggers he could find out a Vein.
