Word describing a specific kind of movement

I am looking for a word or expression (if it exists) describing the movement that a plate makes when you lift from two nearby points of the edge, and then you release one a bit before the other. It looks like a rotation, but it is not.

When this movement is done with the hips, apparently it is called a hip roll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Btyc_io4U

However, none of the definitions of "roll", such as "move in a particular direction by turning over and over on an axis" seem to fit the movement I describe.

The closest I can come up is rotational wave but it sounds very technical and I am trying to use this word in a literary context.

Solution 1:

I am trying to use this word in a literary context.

The normal verb used for this in everyday conversation is wobble:

[Merriam-Webster]
1 a : to move or proceed with an irregular rocking or staggering motion or unsteadily and clumsily from side to side
       // The vase wobbled but didn't fall over.
       // The boy was wobbling along on his bicycle.

In terms of what's being described in the question, the following could be used:

After I let go of the plate, it wobbled on the table until finally coming to rest.

From As You Wish by Gabi Stevens:

She expelled her breath, and with the rush of air, the plate wobbled and crashed to the floor.

From Marie Tanglehair by Dorothy Heiderstadt:

The cake plate wobbled, and a lean brown hand caught and steadied it for her.

From The Little Book of Thinking Big by Robert Newton:

In other words, when the plate was spinning slowly the plate wobbled at a rate exactly half of the rotation.

Solution 2:

I would characterize the motion of the plate as a gyration. From M-W:

gyrate: to oscillate with or as if with a circular or spiral motion

The gyration is damped in that its amplitude decreases every cycle or period. It would work in a literary context.