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• wobbly
  wobbly

  adjective

  shaky; unsteady.
• Wobbly
  Wobbly

  noun

  a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

wobbly

¹ American  

[wob-lee] / ˈwɒb li /

Or wabbly

adjective

wobblier, wobbliest

1. shaky; unsteady.

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Wobbly ² American  

[wob-lee] / ˈwɒb li /

noun

plural

Wobblies

1. a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.

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wobbly ¹ British  

/ ˈwɒblɪ /

adjective

1. unsteady

2. trembling, shaking

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noun

1. slang to become suddenly very agitated or angry

Wobbly ² British  

/ ˈwɒblɪ /

noun

1. a member of the Industrial Workers of the World

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Other Word Forms

• wobbliness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of wobbly¹

First recorded in 1850–55; wobble + -y ¹

Origin of Wobbly²

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; of uncertain origin

Explanation

If something's wobbly, it has a tendency to sway or lurch from side to side, like the wobbly wheel on a broken tricycle or the wobbly legs of a cruise ship passenger who has just set foot on solid ground after a week at sea. If your chair is wobbly, you may need to tighten the legs with a screwdriver. And if you're feeling wobbly during gym class, you probably need to sit down and drink some water. Anything or anyone that wobbles can be described as wobbly, and both words come from a root meaning "to weave back and forth." When the word is capitalized, it's a nickname for a member of the labor union called International Workers of the World.

Related Words

• insecure
• precarious
• rickety
• unbalanced
• uneven
• unstable
• unsteady
• weak