The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whiffler \Whif"fler\, n.
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One who whiffles, or frequently changes his opinion or course; one who uses shifts and evasions in argument; hence, a trifler.
Every whiffler in a laced coat who frequents the chocolate house shall talk of the constitution.
--Swift. One who plays on a whiffle; a fifer or piper. [Obs.]
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An officer who went before procession to clear the way by blowing a horn, or otherwise; hence, any person who marched at the head of a procession; a harbinger.
Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king, Seems to prepare his way.
--Shak.Note: ``Whifflers, or fifers, generally went first in a procession, from which circumstance the name was transferred to other persons who succeeded to that office, and at length was given to those who went forward merely to clear the way for the procession. . . . In the city of London, young freemen, who march at the head of their proper companies on the Lord Mayor's day, sometimes with flags, were called whifflers, or bachelor whifflers, not because they cleared the way, but because they went first, as whifflers did.''
--Nares. (Zo["o]l) The golden-eye. [Local, U. S.]
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) One who whiffles, or frequently changes his or her opinion or course. 2 (context obsolete English) One who argues evasively; a trifler. 3 (context obsolete English) One who plays on a whiffle; a fifer or piper. 4 (context obsolete English) An officer who went before a procession to clear the way, by blowing a horn or otherwise; hence, any person who marched at the head of a procession; a harbinger. 5 (context US dialect English) The goldeneye.
Usage examples of "whiffler".
They pointed out, angrily, that the function of the whiffler was merely to go through a pantomime of making a clear space for the dance that was to follow.
With an elaborate pantomime, laying his finger on his lips, he tiptoed up behind the Whiffler, who stood swinging his sword by its red ribbon.
Presently, the Whiffler, again carrying his sword, re-appeared through the back entrance and joined his brothers.
Ernie is a thistle whiffler and he whiffles thistles with a thistle whiffler.
She also saw Ernie come charging offstage without his whiffler and in a roaring rage himself.
When this had happened several times, arrangements were made by which Whiffler couples could collect for a Whifflet house, whose Whifflet furniture included a handsome presentation smoking cabinet, free from advertising matter and crammed with unnecessary gadgets.
The same whifflers drift aimlessly about hoping to make a few quid on the side, crooked auctioneers, crooked vannies, crooked antique dealers moaning that the antiques are pure unadulterated gunge.
One queue of whifflers, antiques shifters, nurtured the antiques on to auto-trolleys, forming up at the end of the loading bay.
I swarmed back up, looked along the clerks similarly perched, down at the whifflers in their tan overalls.
The whifflers placed a plant stand, quite well made but modern and therefore dross, in the circle, and stepped away while the disc rose like an ancient cinema organ from the floor until it reached my eye-level, four feet away.
Club practically founded itself, and Whifflers who had formed attachments while Whiffling in company, secured special Whifflet coupons entitling them to a Whifflet wedding with a Whifflet cake and their photographs in the papers.
Club practically founded itself, and Whifflers who had formed attachments while Whiffling in company, secured special Whifflet coupons entitling them to a Whifflet wedding with a Whifflet cake and their photographs in the papers.