wobbly
adjective
shaky; unsteady.
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wobbly
1 American
[wob-lee]
/ ˈwɒb li /
Or
wabbly
adjective
wobblier,
wobbliest
Wobbly
2
American
[wob-lee]
/ ˈwɒb li /
noun
-
Wobblies
plural
wobbly
1
British
/ ˈwɒblɪ /
adjective
-
unsteady
-
trembling, shaking
noun
Wobbly
2
British
/ ˈwɒblɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Merz's position as German chancellor certainly looks wobbly.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
The Fed, for instance, cut interest rates three times in 2025 when the U.S. job market turned wobbly.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
We’re meant to guess that Lil Ant wants to be a pilot, a point that feels wobbly even though the kid spends a dozen scenes running around with a toy plane.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The premise of the whole show suddenly becomes wobbly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Alex and Nunu whirled themselves dizzy, then staggered off, teetering in wobbly circles until they both fell over laughing as the dog ran back and forth between them, like he wanted back in the game.
From "Eleven" by Tom Rogers
Wobbly economic conditions could prompt Fed officials to lower rates more than the single cut they penciled in for 2026 back in December.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
Wobbly China recovery after the country put an end to its “zero-COVID” policy has also prevented demand from rebounding quickly.
From Reuters ● Jul. 25, 2023
Well, he says those would be the ones that "became classics", such as Don't Show Keith Your Teeth and the Wibbly Wobbly game.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
Based on her firsthand experience, she says that vendors you’ll definitely want to visit include Flat Tack Farm, Red Truck Farm, Wobbly Cart Farm and Reister Ranch.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
Wobbly with dread, I walked up the hallway and rasped up the twisted stairs, “Hello?”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Neighborhood groups, many of them members of the Wobblies or the Communist Party, in the 1930s physically prevented sheriff's departments from evicting families.
From Salon ● May 4, 2021
The Wobblies, as Rye notes, are “the one big union that took anyone as a member: Finnish logger, Negro seamstress, Indian ranch hand, even floater like them.”
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2020
“The Cold Millions” doesn’t romanticize what successes the Wobblies might have achieved in the face of lawyers, wealthy businessmen and assorted skullduggery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2020
Neither the Mormons nor the Wobblies fit comfortably in narratives of Western development dominated by cowboys, railroad men, ranchers and other boomer archetypes.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2020
We boiled up everything in the jail and it is safe to say that it is now cleaner than it had ever been before, or ever will be after the Wobblies are gone.
From The Everett massacre A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry by Walker C. Smith
Their pitch was a little wobblier, their harmony a little less tight, but the music sounded solid for a surprise read-through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2022
They can only destroy each other, and our empathy for them, which seesaws back and forth as their statuses get wobblier.
From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2019
My feet got wobblier, my efforts to loop back to the starting point slower and my water breaks more frequent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2018
Paul collaboration "Trophy" is grimy and automotive; "Happy" and "Fool to Love" are lighter and wobblier.
From The Verge ● Jul. 29, 2016
His stance grew wobblier with each passing second, but somehow he managed to make eye contact with me.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Since that time, scientists have used what they have learned about gravitational waves to observe a black hole devour a neutron star, glimpse inside neutron stars and even discover the wobbliest black hole ever seen.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2023
Since then, the discovery of gravitational waves have allowed scientists to peer inside neutron stars and discover the wobbliest black hole ever detected.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2023
Science news headlines regularly tout how gravitational waves are allowing scientists to do new things like peer inside neutron stars and discover the wobbliest black hole ever detected.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2022
Open to become the first woman in 27 years to hold all four majors in a calendar year, it would cap another milestone for the record-breaking American: the wobbliest dominant season in tennis history.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 29, 2015
And their boxes and steamships are the wobbliest things.”
From Maida's Little Shop by Inez Haynes Gillmore
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