Definition
nounA flat pastry pressed with a grid pattern, often eaten hot with butter and/or honey or syrup.
nounIn full potato waffle: a savoury flat potato cake with the same kind of grid pattern.
Sentence Examples
I recommend giving it to them straight, don't waffle your way around the subject.
Grease the waffle maker.
He doled out the waffle batter with a large soup spoon.
Word Origin & History
The noun is borrowed from Dutch wafel (“waffle; wafer”), from Middle Dutch wafel, wafele, wavel, from Old Dutch *wāvila, from Proto-Germanic *wēbilǭ, *wēbilō, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”) (whence Dutch weven (“to weave”) and English weave; compare, from the same verbal root, German Wabe (“honeycomb”), given that the grid pattern of the traditional Dutch lent and holiday pastry strikingly resembles a honeycomb), and possibly reinforced by German Waffel (“waffle; wafer”). The English word is a doublet of wafer and gauffre.
The verb (“to smash”) derives from the manner in which batter is pressed into the shape of a waffle between the two halves of a waffle iron.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"This takeaway counter serves up some of Hong Kong's best eggettes, the egg-shaped waffles beloved by local children and adults alike."
— 2017, Piera Chen, Emily Matchar, Lonely Planet Pocket Hong Kong:
"Both joists and slab are cast in place to form a monolithic unit, integral with the supporting beams and columns. The joists form a characteristic waffle pattern on the underside. Structural design of joist construction: one-way or waffle flat slab […]"
— 1970, Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute, Manual of Standard Practice:
"The most widely used type of waffle construction is the waffle flat slab, in which solid portions around column supports are […] These beams may be produced as projections below the waffle, as shown […]"
— 1993, Harry Parker, James Ambrose, Simplified Engineering for Architects and Builders:
"In one-way (pan joist) and two-way (waffle) joist construction, a similar layout is usually adopted."
— 2008, Edward G. Nawy, Concrete Construction Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 9:
"The cab was waffled in between the two, Marsh never having a prayer or even a full comprehension of what happened to him. He was crushed flat, never even hearing the deafening screech of metal."
— 1995, Peter Allen David, The Incredible Hulk: What savage beast: