[f. WADDLE v.]
1. The action of waddling; a waddling gait. Also, rate of progress by waddling.
1691. Shadwell, Scowrers, II. i. 15. That must be my sweet Duckling—I know her by her pretty Waddle in her Gate.
1853. Reade, Chr. Johnstone, ii. 38. A fisherman’s natural waddle is two miles an hour.
1857. Kingsley, Two Yrs. Ago, xxv. The lighter woman’s step was inaudible to Tom; but the heavy deliberate waddle of the banker was not.
1859. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. 168/2. In the Natatores … the great intercotyloid distance gives to their gait its peculiar waddle.
fig. 1827. Hood, Monkey-Martyr, 50. Striding with a step that seem’d design’d To represent the mighty March of Mind, Instead of that slow waddle Of thought, to which our ancestors inclined.
† 2. The wane of the moon. dial. Obs.
[Perh. a distinct word: cf. OHG., MHG. wadal, MLG. wadel (:—*waþlo-) phases or change of the moon.]
1678. Ray’s Prov. (ed. 2), 343. Sow or set beans in Candlemas waddle, i. e. Wane of the Moon. Somerset.
