Brewer's: Bell-wavering

Vacillating, swaying from side to side like a bell. A man whose mind jangles out of tune from delirium, drunkenness, or temporary insanity, is said to have his wits gone bell-wavering.

“I doubt me his wits have gone bell-wavering by the road.” —SirW.Scott: The Monastery, chap vii.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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