different between flutter vs waggle

English

Etymology

From Middle English floteren, from Old English floterian, flotorian (“to float about, flutter”), from Proto-Germanic *flutr?n?, frequentative of Proto-Germanic *flut?n? (“to float”), equivalent to float +? -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Low German fluttern, fluddern (“to flutter”), German flittern, Dutch fladderen; also Albanian flutur (“butterfly”). More at float.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fl?t?/, [?fl???]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fl?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?(?)

Verb

flutter (third-person singular simple present flutters, present participle fluttering, simple past and past participle fluttered)

1. (intransitive) To flap or wave quickly but irregularly.
2. (intransitive) Of a winged animal: to flap the wings without flying; to fly with a light flapping of the wings.
3. (intransitive, aerodynamics) To undergo divergent oscillations (potentially to the point of causing structural failure) due to a positive feedback loop between elastic deformation and aerodynamic forces.
4. (transitive) To cause something to flap.

5. (transitive) To drive into disorder; to throw into confusion.
6. (intransitive) To be in a state of agitation or uncertainty.
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To be frivolous.

Translations

Noun

flutter (countable and uncountable, plural flutters)

1. The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion.
   • c. 1838, Richard Monckton Milnes, The Forest

     the chirp and flutter of some single bird

2. A state of agitation.

   • flutter of spirits

   • 1900, Henry James, The Soft Side The Third Person Chapter 3

     Their visitor was an issue - at least to the imagination, and they arrived finally, under provocation, at intensities of flutter in which they felt themselves so compromised by his hoverings that they could only consider with relief the fact of nobody's knowing.

3. An abnormal rapid pulsation of the heart.
4. (uncountable, aerodynamics) An extremely dangerous divergent oscillation caused by a positive feedback loop between the elastic deformation of an object and the aerodynamic forces acting on it, potentially resulting in structural failure.
5. (Britain) A small bet or risky investment.
   • 30 July, 2009, Eurosport, Gray Matter: How will Schu do?

     So with his victory odds currently at 14/1 or 3/1 for the podium, he's still most certainly well worth a flutter […]

6. A hasty game of cards or similar.
7. (audio, electronics) The rapid variation of signal parameters, such as amplitude, phase, and frequency.

Derived terms

• aflutter
• flutter in the dovecote
• flutterby
• fluttersome
• fluttery

Translations

English

Etymology

wag +? -le (“(frequentative)”). Compare continental equivalents Middle High German wacken ( > Danish vakle, German wackeln), Swedish vagla, West Frisian waggelje, Low German wackeln, Dutch waggelen.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?wa??l/

  Rhymes: -æ??l

Verb

waggle (third-person singular simple present waggles, present participle waggling, simple past and past participle waggled)

1. (transitive) To move (something) with short, quick motions; to wobble.
   • 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions.

2. (intransitive) To reel, sway, or move from side to side; to move with a wagging motion; to waddle.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, Act II, Scene 1,^[1]

     I know you by the waggling of your head.

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop and other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflections, 8th edition, London: A. Bettesworth et. al., 1738, Anianus’s Fables, Fab. 222, p. 239,^[2]

     Why do you go Nodding and Waggling so like a Fool, as if you were Hipshot? says the Goose to her Gosselin.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “British Columbia Nightingale,”^[3]

     The tassel on the end of his pigtail waggled all down the path and, as he turned out of the gate, it gave a special little flip.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

waggle (plural waggles)

1. A wobbling motion.
2. (golf) The preliminary swinging of the club head back and forth over the ball in the line of the proposed stroke.

Anagrams

• waggel