Word.ws English Dictionary

whiffle

/ˈ(h)wɪfl̩/

whiffle noun: a short blow or gust.

Noun

whiffle (plural whiffles)

  1. A short blow or gust.
  2. (Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts) A male haircut done with electric clippers.
  3. (obsolete) Something small or insignificant; a trifle.
  4. (obsolete) A fife or small flute.

Verb

whiffle (third-person singular simple present whiffles, present participle whiffling, simple past and past participle whiffled)

  1. To blow a short gust.
  2. To waffle, talk aimlessly.
  3. (UK) To waste time.
  4. To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
  5. To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
  6. (intransitive) To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.
    • [S]ometimes it may happen that ſuch a Cloud may appear ſeveral Mornings and Evenings, and we may not feel the effects of it, or but very little; yet we always provide againſt it; for a North never comes without ſuch a foreboding Cloud. But if the VVinds also vvhiffle about to the South, with fair...1699, William Dampier, “Of Storms”, in Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, part (please specify |part=I to III), page 61
  7. (transitive) To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
  8. To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.
    • [A] Perſon of whiffling and unſteady Turn of Mind, who cannot keep cloſe to a Point of Controverſy, […]1741, I[saac] Watts, “Rules of Improvement by Conversation”, in The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC, paragraph XXVII...
  9. To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.
    • This is a plain and obvious ſenſe of this Promiſe, […] againſt ſuch as would whiffle away all theſe Truths by reſolving them into a mere moral Allegorie.1669, Henry More, “The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Church of Laodicea”, in An Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches; […], London: […] James Flesher, →OCLC, paragraph 13...

whiffle meaning in Tamil

whiffle in Tamil

மென்காற்று

Forms of whiffle

Noun
pluralwhiffles
alternative formwiffle
Verb
third-person singular presentwhiffles
present participlewhiffling
past participlewhiffled
pastwhiffled

Origin of whiffle

1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentative)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680.

Words formed from whiffle

Phrases with whiffle

Words that rhyme with whiffle

Questions about whiffle

What does whiffle mean?
Whiffle means a short blow or gust.
What is whiffle in Tamil?
Whiffle in Tamil is மென்காற்று. See Whiffle meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is whiffle?
Whiffle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whiffle?
Whiffle is pronounced /ˈ(h)wɪfl̩/.
What is the plural of whiffle?
The plural of whiffle is whiffles.

Words near whiffle in the dictionary

  1. whiffier
  2. whiffiest
  3. whiffiness
  4. whiffing
  5. whiffings
  6. whiffle
  7. whiffle ball
  8. whiffle-ball
  9. whiffle-balls
  10. whiffleball
  11. whiffleballs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whiffle (page history and authors); whiffle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whiffle.wav.

Cite this entry: “whiffle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whiffle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.