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dawdle

verb
/ˈdɔːdl̩/UK/ˈdɔdl̩/US/ˈdɑdl̩/

Etymology

The verb is possibly: * a variant of daddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk or work slowly, dawdle, saunter, trifle”) or doddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk feebly or slowly, dawdle, idle, saunter, stroll”), possibly influenced by daw (“(Britain, dialectal) lazy, good-for-nothing person, sluggard”); or * borrowed from Middle Low German dȫdelen (“to dawdle”), related to Saterland Frisian döädelje (“to dawdle”); compare also German daddeln (“to play”), German verdaddeln (“to waste (time), neglect, ruin”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin. The noun is derived from the verb.

  1. borrowed from dȫdelen — “to dawdle”

Definitions

  1. Chiefly followed by away

    Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.

    • to dawdle away the whole morning
    • [M]anaging to live on terms with both / Opposing potentates, the Power and you, / Crowned with success, but dawdle out my days / In exile here at Clairvaux, with mock love, […]

  2. To spend time idly and unfruitfully

    To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.

    • Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.
    • You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle. There's no doubt of conscience about that, I suppose?

  3. To move or walk lackadaisically.

    • If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won’t get as much exercise.
    • [W]e, who, in muddy boots, dawdle up and down Pall Mall, and peep into the coaches as they drive up with the great folks in their feathers— […]
    • […] I began to wonder if this Arthur were really the same lad she used to pet and think so much of when he came down to Leatherhead and dawdled with my Lady and Bell along the Surrey lanes of an evening.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully

      An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.

    2. An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling

      An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.

      • For many the journey home from school was not a walk but a ‘dawdle’: it was an everyday experience that added meaning to their lives.

    3. Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).

      • Lord, I have ſuch a deal to do, I ſhall ſcarce have time to ſlip on my Italian luteſting.—VVhere is this davvdle of a houſekeeper?

    4. Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete…

      Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dawdle. 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