different between waddle vs wallow

English

Etymology

From Middle English *wadlen, frequentative form of waden, equivalent to wade +? -le. Compare Old High German wadal?n (“to roam; wander”), Middle High German wadelen, wedelen (“to wander; rove”), German wedeln (“to waggle”).First known use in English in a version of the Song of Roland around the year 1400. (Source:OED online)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?d.?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?d.?l/, [?w??.??]
• Rhymes: -?d?l
• Rhymes: -æd?l

Noun

waddle (plural waddles)

1. A squat, swaying gait.

   the waddle of a duck

Translations

Verb

waddle (third-person singular simple present waddles, present participle waddling, simple past and past participle waddled)

1. (intransitive) To walk with short steps, tilting the body from side to side.

Translations

Anagrams

• Dewald, dawdle, dwaled, walded

English

Alternative forms

• waller

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?.l??/
• Rhymes: -?l??

Etymology 1

From Middle English walowen, walewen, walwen, welwen, from Old English wealwian (“to wallow, roll”), from Proto-Germanic *walwijan? (“to roll”), from Proto-Indo-European *welw- (“to turn, wind, roll”).

Verb

wallow (third-person singular simple present wallows, present participle wallowing, simple past and past participle wallowed) (intransitive)

1. To roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.
2. To move lazily or heavily in any medium.
3. To immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with, metaphorically.
   • 1995, The Simpsons Season 7 Episode 1, Who Shot Mr. Burns?, written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein:

     With Smithers out of the picture I was free to wallow in my own crapulence.

4. To live or exist in filth or in a sickening manner.

   • God sees a man wallowing in his native impurity.

   • 1895, The Review of Reviews (volume 11, page 215)

     The floors are at times inches deep with dirt and scraps of clothing. The whole place wallows with putrefaction. In some of the rooms it would seem that there had not been a breath of fresh air for five years.

5. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) To wither; to fade.

Usage notes

In the sense of “to immerse oneself in, to occupy oneself with”, it is almost exclusively used for self-indulgent negative emotions, particularly self-pity. See synonyms for general or positive alternatives, such as revel.

Synonyms

• (to immerse oneself in): bask, delight, indulge, luxuriate, revel, rollick

Derived terms

• wallow in the mire

Translations

Noun

wallow (plural wallows)

1. An instance of wallowing.
2. A pool of water or mud in which animals wallow, or the depression left by them in the ground.
   • 2003, Suzann Ledbetter, A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves:

     Soon, the incessant wind would dry the stenchy wallow to corduroyed cement.

3. A kind of rolling walk.

Translations

Etymology 2

(From inflected forms of) Old English weal?, from Proto-Germanic *walwo-. Cognate with Dutch walg (“disgust”), dialectal Norwegian valg (“tasteless”). Compare waugh.

Adjective

wallow (comparative more wallow, superlative most wallow)

1. (now dialectal) Tasteless, flat.