flipper vs waver

flipper

verb
  • To lift one or both flippers out of the water and slap the surface of the water. 

noun
  • Television remote control, clicker. 

  • A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce. 

  • A flat lever in a pinball machine, triggered by the player to strike the ball and keep it in play. 

  • A kind of false tooth, usually temporary. 

  • A small flat used to support a larger one. 

  • Someone who flips, in the sense of buying a house or other asset and selling it quickly for profit. 

  • Someone who flips in any other sense, for example throwing a coin. 

  • In marine mammals such as whales, a wide flat limb, adapted for swimming. 

  • A flat, wide, paddle-like rubber covering for the foot, used in swimming. 

  • A kitchen spatula. 

waver

verb
  • To sway back and forth; to totter or reel. 

  • To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch. 

  • To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice. 

  • To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way. 

  • To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate. 

  • To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light. 

noun
  • Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment). 

  • Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc. 

  • An act of wavering, vacillating, etc. 

  • A tool that accomplishes hair waving. 

How often have the words flipper and waver occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )