Also 6 wyffle, 7 whifle. [f. WHIFF v.1 + -LE. Cf. Flem. weyfelen ‘vacillare’ (Kilian).]
1. intr. To blow in puffs or slight gusts; hence, to veer or shift about (of the wind; hence, of a ship). Often fig. or in fig. context: To vacillate, to be variable or evasive. Now chiefly dial.
1568. [see WHIFFLING ppl. a.1 1].
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 56. Near mountainous Islands, or shoares, they [sc. winds] whiffle up and down, and shift from one point of the Compasse to another.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 413. The Wind had been whiffling about from one part of the Compass to another. Ibid. (1699), II. III. 61. If the Winds also whiffle about to the South.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, III. xxxv. 236, note. A Man who is continually turning and whiffling about to all the Points of the Compass.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 155. Were we to give a full latitude to synpathy, we should whiffle about with every wind.
1801. Spirit Publ. Jrnls., IX. 370. She yaws and whiffles about like a weathercock.
1812. Tennant, Anster F., IV. liv.
| The whizzing wind comprest their bags within, | |
| And whiffling through the wooden tubes so small. |
1840. Lady C. Bury, Hist. Flirt, II. 102. They whiffle about like a weathercock when you want a matter-of-fact answer to a plain question.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v., The wind whiffles about so.
1881. Nation (N.Y.), XXXII. 400/1. Who like a manly man, will not whiffle, or quibble, or evade.
1903. F. Harrison, in Westm. Gaz., 24 Nov., 1/3. If he finally whiffle round to tax foreign food.
2. trans. To blow or drive with or as with a puff of air. Often fig.
1642. Trapp, Theol. Theol., viii. 335. Whiffled and tossed too and fro with every wind of doctrine.
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, IV. 3. I so whiffled him on the face with my Torch [orig. je lui passe le flambeau par devant le nez] that I burned off allmost all his beard.
1660. S. Fisher, Rusticus ad Acad., Wks. (1679), 152. Like men in a Ship that are whiffled up and down in a troubled Sea.
1664. H. More, Expos. 7 Epist., ix. 163. Such as would whiffle away all these Truths by resolving them into a mere moral Allegorie.
1684. Howe, Redeemer’s Tears, Pref. Swollen with the conceit, that they have whiffled Christianity away, quite off the stage, with their profane breath.
1817. Maria Edgeworth, Ormond, xxvi. No easy dupe, to be whiffled off and on, the sport of a coquette.
1843. Miall, in Nonconf., III. 225. The world is not destined to be whiffled out of its own independent reason by a handful of priests and statesmen.
b. fig. To dismiss by evasion; to say or state evasively.
1654. Vilvain, Theorem. Theol., Suppl. 227. This he whiffles off slightly, that ’tis a Parabol.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, 43. He whiffles, those were the Jewish Ceremonies.
3. intr. To move lightly as if blown by a puff of air; to flicker or flutter as if stirred by the wind. Often fig.
1662. Hibbert, Body Divinity, II. 26. Any anabaptistical humorist, who hath a company of phanatique toyes whiffling about his understanding.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Sadducismus, II. (1726), 452. A mind that useth to whiffle up and down in the levities of fancy.
a. 1774. Harte, Poems, Eulogius, 546. Just as int’rest whiffled on his mind, He Anatolians left, or Thracians join’d.
1817. J. Gilchrist, Intell. Patrim., 148. Better chirp with the cricket, or chatter with the sparrow, than whiffle round this eternal monotony of futility.
1818. Hazlitt, Engl. Comic Writers, viii. (1907), 216. He whiffles about the stage with considerable volubility.
1866. Mrs. H. Wood, St. Martin’s Eve, xvi. Suddenly the flame inside began to whiffle.
1870. Mrs. Julie P. Smith, Widow Goldsmith’s Dau., xxxvii. She would whiffle and whirl up and down like a withered leaf.
4. intr. To talk idly; to trifle. dial. (See also WHIFFLING ppl. a.1 3.)
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Whiffle, to trick one out of a thing, to stand trifling.
1847. Halliwell, Whiffle, to talk idly. North.
5. intr. To make a light whistling sound; trans. to utter with such a sound.
1832. Fraser’s Mag., VI. 262. The two strangers whiffled and hissed together, in an unknown very rapid tongue.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xvii. 448. Master Silence whiffling his scraps of ballads.
1893. Daily News, 13 Feb., 6/1. Where a keen cold plast whiffles and blusters about the black and sullen monsters. Ibid. (1909), 14 Sept., 3. When a bear comes ‘whiffling’ about your snow hut.
1915. Glasgow Herald, 9 Aug., 8. Shells flew ‘whiffling’ over our heads.
† 6. a. trans. To smoke (tobacco). b. absol. To drink. Obs. (Cf. WHIFF v.1 3, 4.)
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 165. The constant and common whiffling it [sc. tobacco].
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. Prol. 15. Those … importunate sots who … constrain an easy, good-natured fellow to whiffle, quaff, carouse [orig. trinquer, voire caros et alluz].
Hence Whiffling vbl. sb.1
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., v. Wks. 1687, I. 65. Such as are … versatile whifflings and dodgings.
1681. J. Scott, Chr. Life, IV. 367. Too much whifling up and down in the little levities of Fancy.
1692. L’Estrange, Josephus, Antiq., VII. ix. Wks. (1702), 203. In her Course, upon the whifling of the Air, a snagged Bough of a Tree took hold of his Hair.
1866. Mrs. H. Wood, St. Martin’s Eve, xvi. The whiffling of the flame was remedied now.
1882. ‘F. Anstey,’ Vice Versâ, iv. This infernal whiffling and sniffing, sir, I will not put up with.
