whiffle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to blow in light or shifting gusts or puffs, as the wind; veer or toss about irregularly.
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to shift about; vacillate; be fickle.
verb (used with object)
verb
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(intr) to think or behave in an erratic or unpredictable way
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to blow or be blown fitfully or in gusts
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(intr) to whistle softly
Etymology
Origin of whiffle
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:
Pickleball is played with a paddle and a plastic ball similar to a whiffle ball.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 28, 2022
Although, she does have a knack for tossing those little whiffle balls into the most unreachable places possible.
From Golf Digest ● Jan. 14, 2020
When my son was 3, we signed him up for a whiffle ball team at our local park.
From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2019
When he was not on the baseball diamond, Rivera could often be found in the street, smashing tennis balls with a bat or playing whiffle ball with friends.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2016
"I can't see, if you whiffle it like that, Prat," cried Mr. Rolls, taking the candlestick from his hand and setting it on the table.
From Mildred Arkell, Volume II (of 3) A Novel by Mrs. Henry Wood
If Yale has whiffled about at this late hour it will show reprehensible weakness and lack of policy.
From Frank Merriwell's Races by Burt L. Standish
Saddle-horses were tied in front, heads hanging and feet knuckled askew with long waiting, and from inside an uneven, riotous din whiffled lightly across the river and intervening meadow to the hill.
From The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories by Owen Wister
Her masts curved and whiffled beneath the immense piles of canvas, like a stringed bow.
From The Portland Sketch Book by Various
I haven't an idea why you have whiffled around again, but I do know it will ruin your reputation.
From Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale by Burt L. Standish
A fast train whiffled through the town and they baggage-hooked a mailbag off the car at about a hundred and fifty per.
From Highways in Hiding by George Oliver Smith
When she tries to laugh she makes “a whiffling sound” that disgusts her.
From Economist ● Feb. 19, 2015
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgy wood, And burbled as he came!
From Time Magazine Archive
He delivers the laughs, but they can't drown out a good deal of creaking, clanking and whiffling.
From Time Magazine Archive
‘But the others will be whiffling off to all sorts of flungaway places like Wellington for the booty flavour and Panama for the hatty taste. Every giant is having his own favourite hunting ground.’
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
The horses were stamping and whiffling at the edge of the clearing.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
