whiffing tackle (hwifingtak"l)

The tackle used in whiffing; surface-tackle. whiffle (hwif'l), r.; pret. and pp. whiffled, ppr. whiffling. [Freq. of whiff1; perhaps confused with D. weifelen, waver.] I. in trans: 1. To blow in gusts; hence, to veer about, as the wind. Two days before this storm began, the Wind whiffled about to the South, and back again to the East, and blew very faintly. Dampier , Voyages, II. iii. 66. Seizing a shovel, he went by the back door to the front of the house, at a spot where the whiffling winds had left the earth nearly bare (of snow], and commenced his subnivean work. S. Judd , Margaret, i. 17. 2. To change from one opinion or course to another; use evasions; prevaricate; be fickle or unsteady; waver. A person of a whiffling and unsteady turn of mind, who cannot keep close to a point of a controversy. Watts , Improvement of the Mind, I. ix. § 27. 3. To trifle; talk idly. Phillips , 1706; Halli well. [Prov. Eng.] I am not like those officious and importunate sots who, by force, outrage, and violence, constrain an easy, good natured fellow to whiffle , quaff, carouse, and what is worse. Urquhart , tr. of Rabelais, iii., Prol. away; scatter. II. trans. 1. To disperse with a puff; blow Such as would whiffle away all these truths by resolving them into a mere moral allegory. Dr. H. More, Epistles to the Seven Churches, ix. [( Latham.) 2. To cause to change, as from one opinion or course to another. Every man ought to be stedfast and unmovable in them [the main things of religion), and not suffer himself to be whifled out of them by an insignificant noise about the infallibility of a visible church. Til lots on , Sermons, lxv. 3. To shake or wave quickly. Donne.