Dictionary

waffliness en · NOUN

Etymology

From waffly + -ness.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The quality of being waffly.
   • New Hampshire’s governor, John Lynch, scuttled the measure, saying, “I know it’s true, but it makes my buttocks clench uncomfortably.” Wussy Democrats like that give this state its waffliness. 2011, Roland Boyle [pseudonym; James Howard], “Swingin’ to the Right: A State-by-State Guide (Part 3)”, in The Tea Party Guide to Being a Real American: Arming Yourself against Godless Liberals, Dirty Socialists, & Sexy Ideas, Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 171:
   • Funny, but there’s summat of her father in her. A kind of spiritual and mental ‘waffleyness’. It’s all he had to leave and by God, poor little ’Nanda got it. It’s a sort of ‘come day, go day, God send Sunday’ attitude towards life. Whenever she didn’t want to face up to things, she shrugged her shoulders—it’s a trick that’s stuck to her all her life. 1937, Naomi Jacob, Fade Out, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 6, section I, pages 148–149:
   • Great Expectations (to get the mandatory truism down and out) has been immensely written about: George Worth had collected more than eleven hundred entries by the time he completed his great bibliography—fifteen years ago. Confronted with so much plenty, an editor is bound to display a certain waffliness. 1999, Edgar Rosenberg, “Preface”, in Charles Dickens, Great Expectations: […] (A Norton Critical Edition), New York, N.Y.; London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page xviii:
   • With a delight that she couldn’t hide, Miss Grenville strode towards Baby and Fingers’s cubicle with a purpose, the complete opposite to her usual vague waffliness. 2021, J. M. Carr, “Baby’s Early Night”, in The Wonder Girls Resist, Southampton, Hampshire: The Cindy Press, →ISBN:
   • In Gunther Steincke’s Kaum einen Hauch (Scarcely Breathing) of 1991 the flautist [Pierre-Yves Artaud] drew from it a deep waffliness of tone and an occasional equivalent of the pop of a distant champagne cork. 1994 October 31, Roger Covell, “Master plays a magic flute”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 49,035, Sydney, N.S.W., →ISSN, page 14, column 7:
   • ‘Where hast thou been?’ he demanded, fretfully. I steadied myself against the wall to hide my waffliness: ‘I was but yonder in the yard, sir, enjoying the sunshine: I feel so much better, today.’ […] I stood like as a statue until waffliness made me sway, whereupon Robert thrust a buffit towards me. 2012, R. M. Moss, To Save the Lost, book II (Purgation), Buxton, Derbyshire: Res Miranda, →ISBN, pages 519 (In medio umbrae mortis) and 524 (Ars moriendi):
   • If we are to be in keeping with these ideas, the Arts should have a shape and substance and should be far, far removed from the airy waffliness, the insubstantial intellectual conceits, the overdone realism, the unfocused flab of much of what characterises contemporary ‘modern’ Art. 2004 January, Thomas L. Muinzer, “Afterthoughts on the Arts”, in On Ethics, Belfast: Lapwing Publications, published 2011, →ISBN, page 61:
   • Not everyone could tolerate him [Kingsley Martin]. George Orwell, for example, despised his waffliness. 1973, Peter Coleman, “Not a man to go shooting tigers with”, in The Bulletin, volume 95, Sydney, N.S.W., →ISSN, page 43, column 3:
   • “In the desire to secure agreement at any cost,” she [Emma Wagner] says, “documents are sometimes inflated – and their logic distorted… foggy language helps to achieve an appearance of political consensus. But inevitably it creates problems for the future, when foggy treaties and laws have to be put into effect.” Could this be one explanation for the waffliness of this Constitution’s English? 2003 June 22, Sean Thomas, “Profile: The Draft European Constitution; Gobbledegook”, in The Sunday Telegraph, number 2,193, London, →ISSN, page 23, column 5:

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