Library / English Dictionary

WADDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Example:

ducks walk with a waddle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

gait (a person's manner of walking)

Derivation:

waddle (walk unsteadily)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Walk unsteadily

Example:

small children toddle

Synonyms:

coggle; dodder; paddle; toddle; totter; waddle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I was still looking at the doorway, thinking that Miss Mowcher was a long while making her appearance, when, to my infinite astonishment, there came waddling round a sofa which stood between me and it, a pursy dwarf, of about forty or forty-five, with a very large head and face, a pair of roguish grey eyes, and such extremely little arms, that, to enable herself to lay a finger archly against her snub nose, as she ogled Steerforth, she was obliged to meet the finger half-way, and lay her nose against it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)