# First use? "Waffle" as a verb

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 17, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530 "2007-09-17T20:09:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530/1 "2007-09-17T20:09:24Z")

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I was watching a documentary this morning. The narrator used the word “waffle” in what I think is it’s newer meaning, to prevaricate or equivocate.

This, to me, is a very new use… maybe the last two decades or so.

Does anybody know the first time \*waffle \*was used in this way?

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**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530/2 "2007-09-17T20:15:50Z")

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I remember in the 1972 British Columbia provincial election, each side was accusing the other of waffling, so it was a current term then. A few years before that there was a political faction called “The waffle group”: [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waffle)

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530/3 "2007-09-17T20:27:24Z")

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It’s older than that:

> [@OED](#):
>
> 1. a. To waver; to vacillate or equivocate; to ‘dither’. orig. Sc. and north. dial. Now colloq. or non-Standard.  
> 1803, etc. [see WAFFLER 1]. 1868 [see WAFFLING ppl. a.]. 1893-4 R. O. HESLOP Northumberland Words II. 762 Waffle, to waft about, to waver, to walk hesitatingly, to act with indecision. 1898 B. KIRKBY Lakeland Words 152 Thoo’l waffle aboot an’ say owt. 1943 Horizon Apr. 234 While I was still waffling I read ‘The Mint’. 1961 C. H. D. TODD Popular Whippet 51 Have we an ideal or are we just ‘waffling around’ following this, that and the other. 1976 Telegraph-Jrnl. (St. John, New Brunswick) 4 Sept. 17/1 She defends the board against suggestions that it waffled on the issue because of political pressure.

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**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-waffle-as-a-verb/419530/4 "2007-09-17T20:28:15Z")

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From [The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/112701.html):

> [@](#):
>
> “Waffle,” meaning to waver, equivocate, and generally make noises like a politician, comes from a remarkably appropriate source. While we would usually say that the noise a dog makes is “woof,” in the 17th century people heard it as “waff,” and making pointless, empty chatter or gossip was known as “waffling.” The sense of “meaningless chatter” eventually carried over into what we call “waffling,” giving empty answers to serious questions.