Dawdle

  • 1Dawdle — Daw dle (d[add] d l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Dawdled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Dawdling}.] [Cf. {Daddle}.] To waste time in trifling employment; to trifle; to saunter. [1913 Webster] Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. Johnson. [1913… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2Dawdle — Daw dle, v. t. To waste by trifling; as, to dawdle away a whole morning. [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 3Dawdle — Daw dle, n. A dawdler. Colman & Carrick. [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 4dawdle — index pause, procrastinate, stall Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …

    Law dictionary

  • 5dawdle — 1650s, perhaps a variant of daddle to walk unsteadily. Perhaps influenced by DAW (Cf. daw), since the bird was regarded as sluggish and silly. Not in general use until c.1775. Related: Dawdled; dawdling …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 6dawdle — *delay, procrastinate, loiter, lag Analogous words: linger, tarry, wait, *stay: *trifle, toy, dally: *play, sport, disport Contrasted words: *stir, rally, rouse, arouse: hurry, hasten, *speed …

    New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 7dawdle — [v] delay; waste time amble, bum around*, dally, diddle daddle*, dilly dally*, drag, fool around*, fritter away*, get no place fast*, goof off*, hang around*, hang out*, idle, lag, laze, lazy, loaf, loiter, loll, lounge, mosey*, poke*,… …

    New thesaurus

  • 8dawdle — ► VERB ▪ move slowly; take one s time. DERIVATIVES dawdler noun. ORIGIN related to dialect daddle, doddle dally …

    English terms dictionary

  • 9dawdle — [dôd′ l] vi., vt. dawdled, dawdling [< ? or akin to ME dadel(ing), chattering (of birds), dadelar, glib talker, prob. of echoic orig.] to waste (time) in trifling or by being slow; idle: often with away SYN. LOITER dawdler n …

    English World dictionary

  • 10dawdle — [[t]dɔ͟ːd(ə)l[/t]] dawdles, dawdling, dawdled 1) VERB If you dawdle, you spend more time than is necessary going somewhere. Eleanor will be back any moment, if she doesn t dawdle... They dawdled arm in arm past the shopfronts. 2) VERB If you… …

    English dictionary