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
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
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
Then through the glasses, U.S. sailormen saw a ragged figure, a pair of wigwag flags.
From Time Magazine Archive
The figure 1, like the wigwag dot, is a quick sweep of the flag to the right, from the perpendicular to the level of the waist, or one quarter304 of a circle.
From Pluck on the Long Trail Boy Scouts in the Rockies by Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin
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
Having wigwagged one relaxing message to the West, the Soviet boss felt called upon to resume his menace.
From Time Magazine Archive
He waved his silk hat at the man in the stand and President Roosevelt wigwagged back to Alfred Emanuel Smith.
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
I told Mike what you wrote to him, and he wigwagged a message of love back to you with his tail.
From 'Smiles' A Rose of the Cumberlands by H. Weston Taylor
There were signs that Johnson was wigwagging his open left hand as well as prominently displaying his clenched right fist.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
The Sport received two badges—being a first class Pioneer—one for winning a contest in wigwagging, and another for ringing the bell for the church fire.
From Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer by Rena I. Halsey
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.
