wigwagging

Verb

wigwag (third-person singular simple present wigwags, present participle wigwagging, simple past and past participle wigwagged)

1. To move gently in one direction and then another; to wig or wiggle, to wag or waggle.
2. An act of wigwagging.
   • Beautiful tails, O, beautiful tails, / Thy gentle wigwag is joyous and queer; / How to our hearts thy switchery tells / Tails of the past ever dear.1872, Charles T[hurber] Miller, Frog Opera, with Pollywog Chorus. A Burletta Founded upon the Nursery Tale and Old Song of A Frog He Would a Wooing Go, Boston, Mass.: Alfred Mudge & Son, printers...
3. To oscillate between two states.
   • Then the headlights swept around the last bend in the track and the train was bearing down on us from less than a block away. The engineer saw us and started leaning on the horn. He was going way too fast. The train whistle kept blaring as the white headlamp on the lead car wigwagged back and...2011, Stephen J[oseph] Cannell, Vigilante (A Shane Scully Novel; 11), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN
4. (US, historical) To send a signal by waving a flag to and fro.
   • He had no prearranged signals for explaining the presence of the two Americans, but when the planes returned to check his messages, he wigwagged: "No Japanese. No signs," and then led Krickel and his daughter to where they could be clearly seen. The lead plane dipped its wings alterately and flew...1988, James A[lbert] Michener, “The Railbelt”, in Alaska: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2014, →ISBN, page 905

See all 14 meanings of wigwag