wobbly

UK/ˈwɒb(ə)li/US/ˈwɑb(ə)li/

adjectiveB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,489 of 15,258leans spoken

Wobbly means unsteady and likely to fall over. A wobbly table, wobbly legs, feeling wobbly.

A wobbly table is nearly always the floor rather than the table, and turning it a little often fixes it — a four-legged table on uneven ground can almost always be rotated into stability. Of a person it means weak or shaky. Note throw a wobbly, which is British for losing your temper.

Definitions of wobbly

1adjectivewobblyUnsteady and likely to fall over.B1+
“Don't stand on that wobbly chair; one of its legs is loose.”
synonyms: unsteady, shaky

wobbly is a quality of instability.

Where it comes from

Low German
wabbeln — to wobble
English
wobble
English, today
wobbly

Built from

wabble · English — wobble

From wobble + -y. wobble comes from earlier wabble (“wobble”), probably from Low German wabbeln (“to wobble”). Compare Dutch wiebelen and wobbelen (“to wobble”), German wabbeln (“to wobble”), Old Norse vafla (“to hover about, totter”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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