waffle

[vacuumfoam]

waffle
Pronunciation: 'wä-f&l, 'wo-

Function 1: noun
Etymology: Dutch wafel, from Middle Dutch wafele; akin to Old High German waba honeycomb, Old English wefan to weave
: a crisp cake of batter baked in a waffle iron

Function 2: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): waf·fled; waf·fling /-f(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: frequentative of obsolete woff to yelp, of imitative origin
1 : EQUIVOCATE, VACILLATE <waffled on the important issues>; also : YO-YO, FLIP-FLOP
2 : to talk or write foolishly : BLATHER <can waffle...tiresomely off the point -- Times Literary Supplement>

Function 3: noun
: empty or pretentious words : TRIPE

I tried to give every definition of "waffle," but my breakfast club accused me of waffling, so I told them to shut up and eat their waffles. (Boo. Bad.)

[Perry]

waffle (v.)
1698, "to yelp, bark," frequentative of waff "to yelp" (1610); possibly of imitative origin. Figurative sense of "talk foolishly" (1701) led to that of "vacillate, equivocate" (1803), originally a Scottish and northern Eng. usage.

Interesting that this sense predates the noun. Also of note that the sense of equivocate came out of "talk foolishly".