Wagger  A signaller.

Attested here and in Baker but not otherwise recorded.

Baker records this as RAAF slang, making it a post World War I term (the RAAF was formed in 1921). The term’s presence here suggests an earlier currency.

Wangle  To manipulate; to manage or employing a skilful, cunning or unscrupulous way; to cook (accounts, reports, etc.).

General. From 1888 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

According to Partridge, this was originally printers’ slang, but was made popular through extensive use during World War I. As F&G note, in World War I, the word was ‘[a]pplicable to anything and everything in any circumstances.’

War Baby  A very rough soldier; foals, pups, etc., born of animals on the strength of the units.

These senses are attested here but not otherwise recorded.

‘War baby’ is well attested as meaning ‘a (usually) illegitimate child born during the war (usually) fathered by a soldier’. OED records a slang sense, ‘a young or inexperienced officer’, while F&G extends it to mean ‘any young subaltern or soldier’, as well as ‘a child born during the War.’

*War Lord  An officious officer.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

This is a transferred sense, from the standard meaning of warlord, ‘a military commander or commander-in-chief’, current from 1856 (OED).

Washers  To ‘cut washers from one’s ring’. An expression denoting extreme weariness on the march.

World War I. Attested here but not otherwise recorded.

*Washout  (1) A failure. (2) An empty, useless or ineffectual thing. (3) A miss in shooting at a target.

(1) General. From 1902 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

(2) General. From 1918 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This sense is usually used of a person.

(3) General military. Attested in Elting, F&G, and Partridge.

These are figurative uses of the standard sense of ‘washout’ meaning ‘the removal by flood of part of a hillside, road, etc’ (OED).

Wazzeh  One of the native quarters of Cairo in which the majority of the houses were brothels.

General World War I. Australian. Attested in B&P, F&G, and Partridge.

In 1915, there were encounters in this area of Cairo (the street Haret el Wasser) between Australian soldiers and the police, known as the ‘Battles of the Wazza’. CJ Dennis included a poem ‘The Battle of the Wazzir’ in his bestselling World War I book, The Moods of Ginger Mick, but it was cut by military censors.

*Welter  ‘To make it a welter’, to exceed the limit.

General Australian. From 1918 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

AND explains that ‘welter’ derives from the British dialect ‘welter’ meaning ‘something exceptionally big or heavy of its kind’.

*We’re Winning  An ironical expression for bad luck. When used satirically applies to bad conditions. Otherwise applied to good.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Partridge includes the ‘good luck’ sense as a catchphrase current from 1942.

*West of Hell  Death; dead.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

See Gone West.

*Whackle Out  Consider deeply.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Wheels  ‘To have wheels (in the head)’ indicates a lack of sense.

Attested here but not otherwise recorded.

This is possibly related to Cog-wheels.

Whippet  A light and fast tank.

General World War I. From 1918 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

F&G provide the following description of the ‘Whippet’: ‘a type of small, light Tank, designed to act with cavalry, first used in April, 1918, in the action at Villers Bretonneux. Whippets carried four Hotchkiss guns, with a crew of one Officer and two Other Ranks, and has a speed of about eight miles an hour’.

*Whip the Cat  Experience chagrin.

General Australian. From 1847 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

Partridge says this comes from the sense of ‘to whip the cat that has spilt the milk’ = ‘to cry over split milk’.

White Haired Boy  A favourite.

General. Originally US. From 1910 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

This was a variant of the Irish ‘white-headed boy’ current from 1820 (OED). Partridge suggests ‘white haired boy’ was a predominantly Australian variant.

*Whiz Bang  (1) The shell fire from a German 77 m.m. gun. So called on account of its extremely high velocity. (2) The name was also applied to the Field Service Post Card issued to the troops, on account of the speed with which they could be completed and despatched.

(1) General World War I. From 1915 (OED). Attested in numerous sources.

OED define this: ‘the shell of a small-calibre high-velocity German gun, so called from the noise it made’. B&P add: ‘[o]wing to their short range and low trajectory, whizz-bangs, arrived as soon, if not sooner, than you heard them’.

(2) General World War I. Attested in B&P, F&G, and Partridge.

Windy  See ‘wind-up’ [no entry].

General World War I. Attested in numerous sources.

This is derived from ‘get the wind up’ meaning to ‘get into a state of alarm’ (From 1916, OED).

‘Windy’ meant ‘nervous, cowardly’.

*Wise-Head  A cunning or intelligent person.

General. From 1756 (OED).

This is almost always used in an ironical sense.

*With the Pin Out  Quickly; headlong. (A metaphor from bombing. Before throwing the Mills bomb, a pin which holds down the lever is withdrawn. In the act of throwing the finger releases the lever which flies upwards, bringing the striker into contact with the detonator, and exploding the bomb within 5 seconds).

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Woodbine  A cheap brand of cigarettes so popular amongst English troops that the name became a commonly used nickname for English troops.

General World War I. Australian. From 1919 (AND). Attested in numerous sources.

*Woolly Dog  A term of abuse.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Workable  Good.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

*Work a Passage  To scheme, with the object of being sent to Australia.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects.

This is a special use of ‘work’ in the sense of ‘to arrange, engineer, or bring about’ (from 1889, OED). It is also an adaptation of ‘work one’s passage’ in the sense of ‘working to pay for one’s journey’, current from 1727 (OED).

*Work the Nut  Act cunningly; scheme.

Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

‘Nut’ is often used for ‘the head’; ‘nut’ is also used as a verb, ‘to think, to use one’s head’.

*Work the Ticket  Feign madness. See ‘Work a passage’.

General military. From the late 1890s (Partridge). Attested in numerous sources.

Feigning madness or illness was a popular way of trying to obtain a discharge from the Army.

Would to Godder  A civilian who ‘would to God that he could go to the war’. Probably first used by the Sydney Bulletin in a cartoon.

World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.

Wrens  The members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service.

General World War I. From 1918 (OED).

The Wrens existed from 1917 to 1919, and also in World War II.

*Write Off  (1) A badly crashed aeroplane. (2) Anything completely spoiled or broken. (3) A man who is killed.

(1) General. From 1918 (OED).

This was first used of a crashed aeroplane, but was later applied to any other piece of machinery smashed beyond repair.

(2) A transferred use of (1). Attested in OED.

(3) A transferred use of (1). Attested in Partridge.