[f. WAVER v. + -ER1.] One who wavers; one who is undecided or vacillates in opinion or choice; one who falters in allegiance or hesitates to embrace a particular party or cause.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iii. 89. But come young wauerer, come goe with me.
1640. trans. Verdere’s Rom. of Rom., I. xxviii. 134. I went to Cloria, unto whom I discovered the desires of my waverer [orig. (1626), 744 les desseins de cet inconstant].
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lx. (1862), V. 259. The waverers thought it time to declare themselves.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 271. More than one waverer was kept steady by being assured in confident terms that a speedy restoration was inevitable.
1885. Manch. Guard., 20 July, 5/5. A section of waverers who have inclined lately to the Tory side.
b. Hist. The name given to a section of Peers who were willing to make terms with the Reform government of 1832 rather than wreck the Upper House.
1832. Greville, Mem., 27 March (1874), II. 273. I have no doubt that all the ultras will be deeply mortified at the moderation of Lord Grey and of the Duke of Wellington, and at the success so far of ‘the Waverers.’
1886. T. E. Kebbel, Hist. Toryism, iv. 210. The second reading of the Bill had been carried in the Lords…, with the help of the well-known ‘Waverers,’ led by Lords Harrowby and Wharncliffe.
