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, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, III. 509. Ferri, a baritone who sang at the Scala about 1853, made use of the tremolo upon every note, to such an extent that his whole singing was a bad WOBBLING trill.
1883. E. GURNEY, Wagner and Wagnerism [Nineteenth Century, xiii. March, 446]. Dismal sounds may express dismal emotions, and soft sounds soft emotions, and WABBLY sounds uncertain emotions.
1884. W. C. 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.
