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dandle

verb
/ˈdændəl/US

Etymology

Compare Scots dandill (“to dander; go about idly; move uncertainly; trifle”), English dialectal dander (“to wander about; talk incoherently; rave”), Middle Dutch dantinnen (“to trifle”) (from French dandiner (“to swing; waddle”)), German dändeln, tändeln (“to trifle, dandle”), Middle Dutch and Provincial German danten (“to do foolish things; trifle”), German Tand (“trifle, prattle”).

  1. derived from Tand — “trifle, prattle”
  2. derived from dändeln
  3. derived from dialectal dander — “to wander about; talk incoherently; rave”
  4. derived from dandill — “to dander; go about idly; move uncertainly; trifle”

Definitions

  1. To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of…

    To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child.

    • the young mother sat [the infant] upright in her lap, and[…]dandled it with a gloomy indifference.
    • You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.

  2. To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child

    To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet.

    • The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence.

  3. To play with

    To play with; to wheedle.

    • captaines, who notwithstanding that they are specially imployed to make peace thorough strong execution of warre, yet they doe so dandle their doings, and dallie in the service to them committed
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A teeter-totter

      A teeter-totter; a seesaw.

The neighborhood

Derived

undandled, dandle board, dandler

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dandle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA