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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
waver
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
never
▪ His faith never wavered, even when Albert became so disturbed by the portents that he could not sleep and fell ill.
▪ Prince Casimir never wavered, praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary for hours on end.
▪ Left-wing and right-wing, labour and management have never wavered from the pursuit of economic growth.
▪ The home team won 8-0 and hooked Lawson, whose allegiance has never wavered.
▪ It has never wavered and has consistently fought ever since for the adoption of this method.
▪ His dedication to their interests never wavered.
▪ Bristow and Trevitt never waver in the closeness of their mutual dialogue and move easily between forceful classical dynamics and quiet self-containment.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I lay still, watching the moonlight waver on the wall.
▪ If people have been wavering about giving the police information, this could be the thing to make them come forward.
▪ Jessica's faith in her husband never wavered.
▪ Maya wavered between accepting and refusing his offer.
▪ Sue's gaze did not waver as she watched Pat leave.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ For a few moments the whole Rebel line... seemed to waver....
▪ For the first time he wavered in his determination to get rid of her.
▪ He held the paper in both hands and he saw the paper waver in front of his spectacles.
▪ I consider buying it, but waver.
▪ Prince Casimir never wavered, praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary for hours on end.
▪ This seemed the best way to draw the wavering states away from Washington and consolidate Southern power.
▪ We're not wavering from that position.
▪ When they went after something nothing made them waver, just as he had set after her.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Waver

Waver \Wa"ver\, n. [From Wave, or Waver, v.] A sapling left standing in a fallen wood. [Prov. Eng.]
--Halliwell.

Waver

Waver \Wa"ver\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wavered; p. pr. & vb. n. Wavering.] [OE. waveren, from AS. w[ae]fre wavering, restless. See Wave, v. i.]

  1. To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter.

    With banners and pennons wavering with the wind.
    --Ld. Berners.

    Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities.
    --Sir W. Scott.

  2. To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate; as, to water in judgment.

    Let us hold fast . . . without wavering.
    --Heb. x. 2

  3. In feeble hearts, propense enough before To waver, or fall off and join with idols.
    --Milton.

    Syn: To reel; totter; vacillate. See Fluctuate.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
waver

late 13c., weyveren, "to show indecision," probably related to Old English wæfre "restless, wavering," from Proto-Germanic *wæbraz (cognates: Middle High German wabern "to waver," Old Norse vafra "to hover about"), a frequentative form from the root of wave (v.). Related: Wavered; wavering.

Wiktionary
waver

n. 1 An act of wavering, vacillating, etc. 2 Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc. 3 Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment). 4 A tool that accomplishes hair waving. 5 (context UK dialect dated English) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To sway back and forth; to totter or reel. 2 (context intransitive English) To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light. 3 (context intransitive English) To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch. 4 (context intransitive English) To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice. 5 (context intransitive English) To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way. 6 (context intransitive English) To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.

WordNet
waver
  1. n. someone who communicates by waving

  2. the act of pausing uncertainly; "there was a hesitation in his speech" [syn: hesitation, falter, faltering]

  3. the act of moving back and forth [syn: flutter, flicker]

  4. v. pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness; "Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures" [syn: hesitate, waffle]

  5. be unsure or weak; "Their enthusiasm is faltering" [syn: falter]

  6. move hesitatingly, as if about to give way [syn: falter]

  7. move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern; "the line on the monitor vacillated" [syn: fluctuate, vacillate]

  8. move back and forth very rapidly; "the candle flickered" [syn: flicker, flitter, flutter, quiver]

  9. sway to and fro [syn: weave]

  10. give off unsteady sounds, alternating in amplitude or frequency [syn: quaver]

Wikipedia
Waver

Waver may refer to:

  • Waver, Belgium, Dutch name of the Belgian city of Wavre
  • Waver, England, a location in Cumbria, England
    • River Waver in Cumbria
  • Waver, Netherlands, a village in the Dutch municipality of Ouder-Amstel

Usage examples of "waver".

His wisdom shone forth in an oration so persuasive and aphoristic that had it not been based on a plea against honour, it would have made Sir Austin waver.

Wrought iron candelabras set at either end of the room threw wavering aqueous reflections on to the ceiling.

He had nothing for it but to endeavour to be the first to convey the already-blown news to Sir John Peachy, sheriff for Kent: his pains were rewarded by his being detained prisoner as a suspected person, while Sir John mustered his yeomanry, and, together with the neighbouring gentry and their retainers, marched towards Hythe, The wavering people, awed by this show of legal and military power, grew cool towards the White Rose, whose name, linked to change and a diminution of taxation, had for a moment excited their enthusiasm.

He buffed them gently and rubbed the rag over her, and she lifted her head and gave him another of those wavering, limpid gazes, before settling back down to sleep again.

Little Ivan it was, anxiously searching the back-alley bars, who found Buffo still on his feet, though wavering, and led him back to Clown Alley, there to settle him on an upturned stool before a rectangle of cracked mirrors, where Buffo flailed about, wriggled, moaned and struggled to prevent Grik and Grok repairing the ravages his debauch had made upon his make-up.

Surely mortal men must break under such punishment, yet they came on, clambering over the torn and twitching corpses of their comrades, their multi-coloured jib has plastered with reeking black mud, never wavering, each man trying to fight his way to the front rank of the attack, scornful of death, eager to seek it out in the smoking muzzles of the guns.

The moment she left me, still wavering between happiness and fear, I understood that I was standing on the very brink of the abyss, and that nothing but a most extraordinary determination could prevent me from falling headlong into it.

She must have known what I was going to do from the way I took it up, but she did not waver for a moment.

Upon reaching Dobro, if you waver in your resolve, then even one warliner is enough to destroy your colony.

Yevil, as the Domina wavered and fell forward, the binders around her ankles pitching her facedown onto the floor.

Continuous surges of emotion pulsed through her veins as the images wavered, causing the dreamscape to focus, then conceal, suspending Danna between reality and illusion.

An uncommon quiet settled over the courtroom as Janice awkwardly sidestepped her way to the aisle and, the blood surging and pounding in her head, mechanically made her way towards the gate in the railings, each step of her wavering progress seemingly energized by an inner force beyond her command or comprehension.

Where Corn-well presents many competing views of the best destiny of Britain, Whyte rarely wavers in his exhaltation of Roman order over any other social structure of the time.

There are many unpleasanter ways of spending a warm autumn afternoon than standing under the willows of Fleam Dyke watching the pools of a river for the smoke of disturbed mud and the wavering silver which is an eel.

His soft, clear voice wavered and choked, and his freckled face looked pale and weary beneath the bandage swathing his head, but he grimly went through the whole prayer.