dawdle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
dawdles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dawdled,
past participle, past
-
dawdling
present participle
-
to waste time; idle; trifle; loiter.
Stop dawdling and help me with these packages!
-
to move slowly, languidly, or dilatorily; saunter.
verb (used with object)
-
dawdles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dawdled,
past participle, past
-
dawdling
present participle
verb
-
(intr) to be slow or lag behind
-
to waste (time); trifle
Synonym Usage
See loiter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dawdlesimple
-
dawdlessimple
-
have dawdledperfect
-
has dawdledperfect
-
am dawdlingprogressive
-
are dawdlingprogressive
-
is dawdlingprogressive
-
have been dawdlingperfect progressive
-
has been dawdlingperfect progressive
Past
-
dawdledsimple
-
had dawdledperfect
-
was dawdlingprogressive
-
were dawdlingprogressive
-
had been dawdlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dawdle
First recorded in 1650–60; variant of daddle “to toddle”
Explanation
There are lots of words that mean to move slowly. The point of dawdle is that one is moving too slowly, is falling behind, or is not properly focused on making progress. One way to remember the meaning of dawdle is that it rhymes with "waddle," as in, "a duck waddles." Imagine what would happen if you waddled instead of walked. It would take a lot more time, and your companion might say, "Don't dawdle!" Dawdle implies not only taking extra time but actually wasting it. A leisurely walk in the woods is one thing, but if you have to get to the theater on time, don't dawdle along the way: you'll miss the curtain!
Vocabulary lists containing dawdle
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Touching Spirit Bear
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As Californians dawdle about casting ballots before Tuesday’s primary, the leading candidates hoping to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom crisscrossed the state making their closing arguments to voters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
She has set a six-minute daily time limit as a reminder not to dawdle on Instagram.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
If a few passengers dawdle while stowing their bag and finding their seat, it can make the difference between a flight being on time or late in the government’s official statistics.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
And while there's still a need for a similarly big player to volumize Kernza sales, smaller companies can keep farmers growing the crop while consumer packaged goods companies dawdle on the sidelines.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2023
I had no idea how fast Sputnik would be, whether it would zip along or dawdle.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
If Minnesota dawdles, it “will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year,” the CMS head said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
It is the role of prosecutors to vindicate that interest by initiating judicial action when a defendant dawdles.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2024
Many of Dellario’s gently impressionistic pictures depict Rock Creek as it dawdles through and around large, glistening rocks.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022
The second movement is an inert nocturne; in the third an intriguing idea, a duet passage for tuba and harp, dawdles into irrelevance.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2016
The Colonel blinks and twitches his nose, and the thing dawdles on.
From At Ypres with Best-Dunkley by Floyd, Thomas Hope
Later, at Brasserie de Monaco, the principality’s craft beer brewery, I dawdled over a pint of Blonde de Monaco and fell into conversation with Nils, a Danish skipper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
Not yet knowing what I was in for, though, I dawdled, thinking the journey too far and impractical, until I finally relented about 20 hours before totality over Idaho.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2024
Called for a single by Foakes, Stokes dawdled and was beaten by a direct hit from Shreyas at mid-wicket.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2024
Already, it’s become a new sign of the times in baseball — an umpire pointing to his wrist, indicating a pitcher dawdled too long.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2023
Even if he and Goblin had dawdled a bit on country roads, they both liked arriving at the inns at a gallop.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Cut a dawdling fight scene here and an interminable escape scene there, and the film would make a delightful in-universe companion to precede next summer’s “Superman” sequel, “Man of Tomorrow.”
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
Like, just in case someone’s dawdling, or being careless about where they’re dumping snow.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2026
Wearing an electric-blue jacket emblazoned with the words “Tell Your Dog I Said Hi,” she crouches low to film a dawdling old pug named Jojo with her iPhone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
After Black Rod — Sarah Clarke — raps three times on the door with her staff, lawmakers make their way to the House of Lords, deliberately dawdling and chatting as they go.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 6, 2023
And even though her knee might have been bothering her, there was no dawdling with Aunt Kitty.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
