dawdle
Americanverb (used without object)
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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)
verb
-
(intr) to be slow or lag behind
-
to waste (time); trifle
Related Words
See loiter.
Other Word Forms
- dawdler noun
- dawdlingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of dawdle
First recorded in 1650–60; variant of daddle “to toddle”
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.
“I wish you wouldn’t dawdle so, Margaret! I have been standing here for the better part of a minute. Now draw me a bath, please, and lay out a fresh gown.”
From Literature
In France's tournament opener, after their heavy brigade had bashed away at a stubborn Wales defence for 12 phases, Dupont picked up the ball and dawdled sideways and backwards off the back of the breakdown.
From BBC
She has set a six-minute daily time limit as a reminder not to dawdle on Instagram.
From Seattle Times
While these cities dawdle, the region’s residents suffer the effects of the housing shortage: high rents, overcrowding, eviction and homelessness.
From Los Angeles Times
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
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.
