whiffle

noun

1. A short blow or gust.
2. (Maine)A male haircut done with electric clippers.
3. (obsolete)Something small or insignificant; a trifle.
4. (obsolete)A fife or small flute.

verb

1. To blow a short gust.
2. To waffle, talk aimlessly.
3. (UK)To waste time.
4. To travel quickly with an accompanying wind-like sound; whizz, whistle along.
5. To descend rapidly from a height once the decision to land has been made, involving fast side-slipping first one way and then the other.
6. (intransitive)To waver, or shake, as if moved by gusts of wind; to shift, turn, or veer about.

   “[S]ometimes it may happen that ſuch a Cloud may appear ſeveral Mornings and Evenings, and we may not feel the effects of it, or but very little; yet we always provide againſt it; for a North never comes without ſuch a foreboding Cloud. But if the VVinds also vvhiffle about to the South, with fair flattering VVeather, it never fails.”

7. (transitive)To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.
8. To change from one opinion or course to another; to use evasions; to prevaricate; to be fickle.

   “[A] Perſon of whiffling and unſteady Turn of Mind, who cannot keep cloſe to a Point of Controverſy, […]”

9. To disperse with, or as with, a whiff, or puff; to scatter.

   “This is a plain and obvious ſenſe of this Promiſe, […] againſt ſuch as would whiffle away all theſe Truths by reſolving them into a mere moral Allegorie.”