WADDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does waddle mean? 

• WADDLE (noun)
  The noun WADDLE has 1 sense:

1. walking with short steps and the weight tilting from one foot to the other

  Familiarity information: WADDLE used as a noun is very rare.

• WADDLE (verb)
  The verb WADDLE has 1 sense:

1. walk unsteadily

  Familiarity information: WADDLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WADDLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walking with short steps and the weight tilting from one foot to the other

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

ducks walk with a waddle

Hypernyms ("waddle" is a kind of...):

gait (a person's manner of walking)

Derivation:

waddle (walk unsteadily)

• WADDLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they waddle    ... he / she / it waddles   
Past simple: waddled   
Past participle: waddled   
-ing form: waddling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk unsteadily

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

coggle; dodder; paddle; toddle; totter; waddle

Context example:

small children toddle

Hypernyms (to "waddle" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children waddle to the playground

Derivation:

waddle (walking with short steps and the weight tilting from one foot to the other)

waddler (someone who walks with a waddling gait)

 Context examples 

With the bag slung over her arm, and rattling as she waddled away, she waddled to the door, where she stopped to inquire if she should leave us a lock of her hair.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The children, however, saw from afar that the three servants were coming, and the cook waddling after them.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The animal waddled toward the centre of the circle, short and squat and ungainly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

With its stocky legs set squarely at each corner of its compact, muscular body, its deliberate gait has become a waddle.

(English Bulldog, NCI Thesaurus)

I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the best detective that ever lived.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ah, saucy! saucy, quoth he, with gentle chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and puzzled, dropped its four legs to earth again, and, waddling back, was soon swathed in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of peasants who had been in close pursuit.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Well, then, he shall! I thought he looked as if he did!” returned Miss Mowcher, waddling up to me, bag in hand, and laughing on me as she came.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Late at night they arrived at an inn; and as it was bad travelling in the dark, and the duck seemed much tired, and waddled about a good deal from one side to the other, they made up their minds to fix their quarters there: but the landlord at first was unwilling, and said his house was full, thinking they might not be very respectable company: however, they spoke civilly to him, and gave him the egg which Partlet had laid by the way, and said they would give him the duck, who was in the habit of laying one every day: so at last he let them come in, and they bespoke a handsome supper, and spent the evening very jollily.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Of the geese outside the side-gate who come waddling after me with their long necks stretched out when I go that way, I dream at night: as a man environed by wild beasts might dream of lions.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They were telling one another of all the places where they had been waddling about all the morning, and what good food they had found; and one said in a pitiful tone: Something lies heavy on my stomach; as I was eating in haste I swallowed a ring which lay under the queen’s window.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)