waffle

A flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern, often eaten hot with butter and/or honey or syrup.

“The brunch was waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.”

UKIn full potato waffle: a savoury flat potato cake with the same kind of grid pattern.

constructionalso attributivelyA concrete slab used in flooring with a gridlike structure of ribs running at right angles to each other on its underside.

textileschiefly attributivelyA type of fabric woven with a honeycomb texture.

colloquial(Often lengthy) speech or writing that is evasive or vague, or pretentious.

“This interesting point seems to get lost a little within a lot of self-important waffle.”

UKdialectalThe high-pitched sound made by a young dog; also, a muffled bark.

Pancake batter baked in a waffle ironfood

slangTo smash (something).

To speak or write evasively or vaguely.

Of a bird: to move in a side-to-side motion while descending before landing.

“The geese waffled as they approached the water.”

aviationroad transportcolloquialOf an aircraft or motor vehicle: to travel in a slow and unhurried manner.

originally northern englandScotlandcolloquialTo be indecisive about something; to dither, to vacillate, to waver.

Often followed by on: to speak or write (something) at length without any clear aim or point; to ramble.

To hold horizontally and rotate (one's hand) back and forth in a gesture of ambivalence or vacillation.

UKdialectalOf a dog: to bark with a high pitch like a puppy, or in muffled manner.

Pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness

“Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures”