Waddle v.

Forms: 5 wadill, 6–8 wadle, 7– waddle. Also quaddle, QUODDLE. [freq. f. WADE v.: see -LE.]

  † 1.  intr. ? To fall heavily or as an inert mass.

c. 1400.  Song of Roland, 991. He rent hym vnredly euyn to the sadill: on ether sid of his horse doun did he wadill.

  2.  To walk with short steps, swaying alternately from one leg to the other, as is done by a stout short-legged person.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iii. 37. Then she could stand alone, nay bi’ th’ roode she could haue runne & wadled all about.

1620.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Jack a Lent, B 1 b. Alwayes before Lent there comes wadling a fat grosse bursten-gutted groome, called Shroue-Tuesday.

1681.  T. D[’Urfey], Progr. Honesty, xii. 13. Next a fat Author wadled into view.

1760–2.  Goldsm., Cit. W., lxviii. This great man is short of stature, is fat, and waddles as he walks.

1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, II. vii. ¶ 20. The old procuress waddled out of sight.

c. 1860.  B. Harte, Arctic Vision, 1.

1893.  F. Espinasse, Lit. Recoll., ii. 14. He [Sir Henry Ellis] was a short, dumpy, red-faced man, so fat that he waddled rather than walked.

  b.  said of animals; esp. of ducks or geese.

1611.  Cotgr., Caneter, to waddle, or goe, like a ducke.

1691.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2686/4. She [a mare] wadles in her Trot.

1728–42.  Pope, Dunc., II. 63. As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse On feet and wings.

1819.  Crabbe, Tales of Hall, XIII. 516. And a fat spaniel waddled at his side.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xv. Ducks and geese … waddling awkwardly about the edges of the pond.

1845.  J. Coulter, Adv. in Pacific, ix. 115. I caught sight of a huge seal waddling up out of the water.

1888.  F. Hume, Mme. Midas, II. i. The parrot … waddled clumsily across the table to the inkstand.

  c.  transf. said of things.

1728.  Pope, Dunc., I. 172. Like bias to the bowl, Which, as more pond’rous, made its aim more true, Obliquely wadling to the mark in view.

1858.  Straith’s Fortif. & Artillery (ed. 7), II. 121. The nave need not be more than 12 or 14 inches in length; if too short, the wheel would waddle (or, as it is sometimes called, wabble).

  † d.  Stock Exchange slang. To become a ‘lame duck’ or defaulter (see DUCK sb.¹ 9). In full, to waddle out. Obs.

1771.  Garrick, Prol. to Foote’s Maid of B., 30.

1799.  in Spirit Publ. Jrnls., III. 72. A bear who pretends to sell what he is not possessed of, and is obliged frequently to waddle out at a great loss.

1814.  Stock Exchange Laid Open, 20. A Jobber was never known to waddle (to be a lame duck).

1823.  ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, s.v., Jobbers, usually brokers, who cannot make good their engagements for the delivery of stock, or run short in funds to pay for what they have bought,… become lame ducks and waddle out.

1834.  Marryat, P. Simple, lxv. He’s been neither bull nor bear for these three years. He was obliged to waddle.

  † 3.  trans. ? To cause to wallow in. Obs.

1569.  Crowley, Sophistrie Dr. Watson, ii. 26. We, whom you would haue men thinke to be defiled with it, are cleare from it, and you your selfe most filthily wadled in it.

  4.  Of animals: To trample or tread down (grass). Now dial.

1627.  Drayton, Moon-Calf, Batt. Agincourt, etc., 183. They tread and waddle all the goodly grasse, That in the field there scarse a corner was Left free by them.

  † 5.  ? To delude, befool. Obs.

1606.  N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, I 4. Browne Paper, Lute-strings, buckles for a Saddle, Perwigs, Tiffany, Paramours to waddle.