Link Centre Dictionary

waver

wa·ver

UK/ˈweɪvə/ US/ˈweɪvəɹ/ uncommon archaic dated obsolete
verb (7) noun (3)

verb

1.

pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness

  • “Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures”
Synonyms
2.

be unsure or weak

  • “Their enthusiasm is faltering”
Synonyms
3.

move hesitatingly, as if about to give way

Synonyms
4.

move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern

  • “the line on the monitor vacillated”
Synonyms
5.

move back and forth very rapidly

  • “the candle flickered”
Synonyms
6.

sway to and fro

Synonyms
7.

give off unsteady sounds, alternating in amplitude or frequency

Synonyms

noun

1.

someone who communicates by waving

2.

the act of pausing uncertainly

  • “there was a hesitation in his speech”
Synonyms
3.

the act of moving back and forth

Synonyms

Origin

The verb is derived from Middle English waveren (“to move back and forth, swing; to move unsteadily, totter; to shake, tremble; to wander; (figurative) to be changeable or unstable; to deviate”), and then possibly: * from Old English (compare Old English wǣfre (“flickering, quivering, wavering; active, nimble (?)”)), related to Old English wafian (“to wave”) from Proto-West Germanic *wabbjan (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wabjaną (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”); and/or * from Old Norse vafra (“to move unsteadily, flicker”), probably related to vefa (“to weave”); both from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Doublet of wave. The noun is derived from the verb.

Phrases

  • new waver
  • sign waver

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.