waggle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
waggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
waggled,
past participle, past
-
waggling
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
waggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
waggled,
past participle, past
-
waggling
present participle
-
to move up and down or from side to side in a short, rapid manner; wag.
to waggle one's head.
-
Golf. to make a waggle with (a golf club).
noun
-
a waggling motion.
-
Golf. a swinging movement made with a golf club to and fro over the ball prior to a stroke.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wagglesimple
-
wagglessimple
-
have waggledperfect
-
has waggledperfect
-
am wagglingprogressive
-
are wagglingprogressive
-
is wagglingprogressive
-
have been wagglingperfect progressive
-
has been wagglingperfect progressive
Past
-
waggledsimple
-
had waggledperfect
-
was wagglingprogressive
-
were wagglingprogressive
-
had been wagglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of waggle
Explanation
To move back and forth or up and down very quickly (and a little erratically) is to waggle. I don't recommend that you waggle your arm under your teacher's face to get his attention. Try raising your hand politely instead. This word sounds like a cross between wiggle and wag. Just watch a really excited dog's tail moving and you'll get a sense of waggle's origin — it does derive from wag and its Old English root wagian, "move backwards and forwards." In golf, you waggle a club by swinging it around a bit before hitting the ball. And beekeepers describe the "waggle dance" honeybees perform to communicate information to each other.
Vocabulary lists containing waggle
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:
Every day, new people came, some people left, but the constant was Syd, his presence, his waggle, his ability to give unexpected joy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2025
He added: "He had a super swing - a no-nonsense swing. One waggle and away it went."
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2025
This enabled them to track the position of the antennae of the surrounding bees in fine detail during each waggle dance -- which are otherwise a blur to the naked human eye.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
Insects are known to be capable of social learning in the wild: the best-known example is the so-called waggle dance used by honeybees to communicate the location and quality of flowers.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 7, 2023
I raise my arms, waggle my hands, and stamp my feet at them.
From "The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle" by Leslie Connor
But he says the new research reveals more about the structure of a species’ communication system, much as scientists deciphered how the waggles of honey bees tell other bees where flowers are located.
From Science Magazine ● May 7, 2024
The researchers observed that bees alter the position of their antennae, which are touched repeatedly by the dancer as it waggles by, based on the angle of their body relative to the dancer.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
“His tongue waggles, he talks fast. Smooth talker is how I’m going to explain it.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2023
It's a fiercely hot afternoon in Milton Keynes and I'm chasing a small orange flag as it waggles just above a line of low garden walls.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2022
August turns to Marlena and waggles his finger at her.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Millions of people watched the awards shows where Williams waggled his hips at Tom Jones, or challenged Oasis’ Liam Gallagher to a fist fight — moments that have been absorbed into pop culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2024
She waggled her fingers again, as if sprinkling magic dust.
From New York Times ● Aug. 28, 2021
He charged the edge of the stage, waggled his arms, and galloped in circles.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2019
“Respect the axe. Don’t swing it everywhere. Don’t just throw it around all willy-nilly,” Meehan-Berg said, as I waggled the axe about.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 16, 2018
Cassiopeia waggled it in front of Lady Constance’s face.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
The imagery in “Minions & Monsters” can be ingenious, like the galumphing tentacles on an oversize squid or the close-up shot that goes inside a director’s megaphone to see his tongue waggling at the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Anyway, a discussion about the weather sparked Mr. Biden’s memory of an old movie, unspooling in his waggling mind.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 11, 2023
Slow-motion footage of waggling goose butts set to a bouncy, whimsical orchestral soundtrack works.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2020
When Weird Al appeared, waggling his arms zanily, long hair flapping in the hot wind, the crowd greeted him with a surge of joy.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2020
Only some, mind you, she said coyly, raising her index finger, waggling it at us.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
