Re: To waffle, ‘to waver, to vacillate, to equivocate, to dither’

On 2024-04-25, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:

Speaking (in sci.lang) of Andy Grove, he uses waffle in the above sense in his
good, well-edited ‘High Output Management.’ In my youth I would only have used
or understood the word in the meaning ‘to ramble on, to say nothing of much
consequence,’

I'm not familiar with that meaning.

I presume I have misunderstood various Americans over the years in not picking
up on the ‘dither’ meaning. How universal is that meaning over there?

That's the meaning I know, so presumably it is prevalent in AmE.

The Britannica Dictionary (formerly Merriam-Webster Learner's
Dictionary), which is very good at giving the prevalent meanings
in contemporary usage, says:

1 US : to be unable or unwilling to make a clear decision about
  what to do
2 British : to talk or write a lot without saying anything important
  or interesting
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/waffle

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de