wigwag
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to move to and fro.
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Nautical. to signal by movements of two flags or the like waved according to a code.
noun
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Nautical. the act or process of sending messages by the movements of two flags or the like waved according to a code.
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a message so signaled.
verb
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to move (something) back and forth
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to communicate with (someone) by means of a flag semaphore
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wigwag
1575–85; wig to wag (now dial.) + wag; gradational compound, parallel to zigzag, etc.
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:
Lex not only brought us together but sent us down different paths than we’d been on before he gave us the wigwag.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 25, 2016
Through distributors which the committee branded dummies, it gets its news by wigwag or telephone from the tracks, flashes it by Western Union teletype throughout the country.
From Time Magazine Archive
From here, he can wigwag through the skylight into the kitchen when he is ready for lunch.
From Time Magazine Archive
A labor spokesman said in effect that Wilson was a liar, no such offer had been made "by personal conversation, mail, telephone, telegram, wigwag or smoke signal."
From Time Magazine Archive
Usually it was the wigwag that he used.
From Pee-Wee Harris on the Trail by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
The guest pianist watched the little tantrum, then, turning towards his wife and friends in the studio, wigwagged his eyebrows and giggled.
From Time Magazine Archive
For better visibility during World War II, landing signal officers on U.S. aircraft carriers wore fluorescent-striped uniforms, wigwagged planes to landings with fluorescent "paddles."
From Time Magazine Archive
One of them wigwagged: "Am I right for Sicily?"
From Time Magazine Archive
Then they hustled on up to Sotheby's in London, where Dickie knocked down a Picasso for $21,600 and Liz wigwagged the winning $120,000 bid for a nice old Monet.
From Time Magazine Archive
I wigwagged to my companions, received their answering signal, and went on down the trough, whistling to the dog and shouting his name though I could not hope he would hear me above that gale.
From A Mountain Boyhood by Enos B. (Enos Benjamin) Comstock
Once, to distract batters, he began wigwagging and semaphoring at the plate from his second base position.
From Time Magazine Archive
Zeppo and Chico were to play, Harpo to advise, Groucho to perch on a tower behind Culbertson wigwagging signals.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were signs that Johnson was wigwagging his open left hand as well as prominently displaying his clenched right fist.
From Time Magazine Archive
For the first time, Johnson seemed to be wigwagging a readiness to stop the bombing and enter into talks without advance guarantees or gestures from Hanoi.
From Time Magazine Archive
He left his stand under the tree and circled nervously around it, looking, listening, wigwagging his big ears, trying the wind at every step, and setting his hoofs down as if he trod on dynamite.
From Wood Folk at School by William Joseph Long
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.
