I. verb
also wab·ble ˈwäbəl also ˈwȯb-
( wobbled ; wobbled ; wobbling -b(ə)liŋ ; wobbles )
Etymology: probably from Low German wabbeln to wobble; akin to Middle High German wabelen to waver, Old Norse vafla to hover about, Old English wǣfre wavering, restless — more at waver
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to move or move along with an irregular rocking or staggering motion : move or swing unsteadily and clumsily backward and forward or from side to side : vary from a true course by tilting unsteadily from side to side
ducks go wobbling by in two straight lines — Norman MacCaig
the baby's head wobbled safely to rest on her shoulder — Margaret A. Barnes
saw an open car ahead of her wobble to the side of the road, one of its tires flat — New Yorker
b. : to shake unsteadily : tremble , quaver
a wobbling chin
his voice wobbled
2. dialect England : to boil vigorously
3. : to waver or vacillate between different courses of action, policies, or parties : show indecision
his first play … wobbled between melodrama and passionate tragedy — Sheldon Cheney
transitive verb
: to cause to move with a wobbling or lurching motion from side to side
most airplanes plunge straight, others wobble their wings as they dive — Wolfgang Langewiesche
II. noun
also wabble “
( -s )
1.
a. : a hobbling or rocking unequal motion (as of a wheel unevenly hung) : a staggering to and fro : a wobbling gait
a rotational wobble of the earth's axis in space — S.F.Mason
b. : an uncertainly directed movement : fluctuation
a faint wobble of doubt — Robert Lynd
the sort of serious wobble that accompanies maladjustments between political and economic development — Colin Legum
c. : an intermittent variation (as in volume of sound) : quaver
a wobble in the sound of a phonograph record
a vocal wobble
2. wobbles plural but usually singular in construction : a disease of horses that is marked by degenerative changes in the spinal cord and nerves resulting in ataxia chiefly of the hind legs and that in Australia has been reported to result from feeding on various palms but in the United States is held to be a recessive hereditary trait