Sc. and north. dial. Also 9 wuddle. [Parallel to WADDLE.] intr. To move slowly and irregularly; to waddle; to wriggle; fig. to work slowly and laboriously; to get through something in spite of difficulties or hindrances. Also Widdle-waddle v., and † adv., with a waddling or unsteady movement.
1660. in W. W. Wilkins, Pol. Ball. (1860), I. 160. But Noll, a rank rider, gets first in the saddle,… She quickly perceiv’d that he rode widdle-waddle.
1808. in Jamieson.
1844. Whitelaw’s Bk. Sc. Song, 268/2. We hope to wuddle through Life’s linked and ravelled clew.
1864. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, xiii. Her mind was … engrossed wi’ thochts o’ her bit laddie, an’ hoo he wad widdle through the warl’.
1886. Cunliffe, Gloss. Rochdale, Widdle-waddle, to walk from side to side, as a duck.
1890. Service, Notandums, xix. 124. I aye like to be waunerin’ aboot and widdlin’ amang the beasts.
