different between whiffle vs whiffler

English

Alternative forms

• wiffle

Etymology

1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff +? -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?(h)w?fl?/
• Rhymes: -?f?l

Noun

whiffle (plural whiffles)

1. A short blow or gust.
2. (obsolete) Something small or insignificant; a trifle.
3. (obsolete) A fife or small flute.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Douce to this entry?)

Verb

whiffle (third-person singular simple present whiffles, present participle whiffling, simple past and past participle whiffled)

1. To blow a short gust.
2. To waffle, talk aimlessly.
3. (Britain) To waste time.
4. To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
5. (ornithology, of a bird) To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
6. (intransitive) To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
7. (transitive) To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
8. To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
9. To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.

Derived terms

• wiffleball

References

English

Etymology

From whiffle +? -er.

Noun

whiffler (plural whifflers)

1. (obsolete) One who whiffles, or frequently changes their course or opinion.
2. (obsolete) One who argues evasively; a trifler.
3. (obsolete) One who plays on a whiffle; a fifer or piper.
4. (obsolete) An officer who went before a procession to clear the way, by blowing a horn or otherwise; hence, any person who marched at the head of a procession; a harbinger.
   • 1822, Robert Nares, A Glossary [...]:

     Whifflers, or fifers, generally went first in a procession, from which circumstance the name was transferred to other persons who succeeded to that office, and at length was given to those who went forward merely to clear the way for the procession […] In the city of London, young freemen, who march at the head of their proper companies on the Lord Mayor's day, sometimes with flags, were called whifflers, or bachelor whifflers, not because they cleared the way, but because they went first, as whifflers did.

5. (US, dialectal) The goldeneye.