real wobbler
- noun
- Slang
:
incertidumbre
- The weather forecast is a real wobbler; it could rain or stay sunny.
Examples
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The outcome of the game was a real wobbler, with both teams performing unexpectedly.
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Investing in that startup is a real wobbler since its future success is unpredictable.
-
A real wobbler!
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
7
9.1
A risky situation where the result depends mostly on luck
1
9.5
An uncertain situation whose result depends on chance
How Uncertain
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is partly derivable: 'real' is an intensifier and 'wobbler' evokes something that wobbles/is unstable or undecided, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer a sense of strong unpredictability. However, 'wobbler' is colloquial and regionally variable (and has specialized senses like a tantrum or an undecided voter), so the precise sense 'highly uncertain outcome' is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Real wobbler may come from the image of something that wobbles, that is, moves unsteady and looks like it might fall, like a shaky table or a spinning top losing its balance. So, a real wobbler means 'very uncertain' or likely to change suddenly.