dangle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdæŋ.ɡl̩/
rhymes: -æŋɡəl
Forms: form: dangles
form: dangling
form: dangled
form: dangled
Etymology: Uncertain, but likely of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish dingle, dangle, Swedish dangla (“to swing about”), Norwegian dangla, perhaps via North Frisian dangeln; all possibly related to Old Norse dengja (“to hit”).
Senses: examples: text: His feet are dangling in the water.
text: He'd rather on a gibbet dangle / Than miss his dear delight, to wrangle.
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
text: From her lifted hand / Dangled a length of ribbon.
ref: 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the poem)”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
ref: 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
glosses: To hang loosely with the ability to swing.
examples: text: He dangled around three players and the goalie to score.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
ice-hockey
lacrosse
lifestyle
skating
sports
glosses: The action of performing a move or deke with the puck in order to get past a defender or goalie; perhaps because of the resemblance to dangling the puck on a string.
examples: text: I like to sit on the edge and dangle my feet in the water.
glosses: To hang or trail something loosely.
examples: text: That it happens to have been produced under the imprimatur of Michael Bay dangles the possibility of poor taste, but unfortunately, bombast and conspicuous consumption are nowhere to be found.
ref: 2020 December 10, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “The first movie inspired by the pandemic is here, and it sucks”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2020:
glosses: To put forth as a possibility.
examples: text: To dangle at the elbow of a wench who can't make up her mind to accept the common title of wife, till she has been courted a certain number of weeks — so the old blinker, her father, says.
ref: 1833, Miller's Modern Acting Drama:
glosses: To trail or follow around.
examples: text: Record the time and duration of dangling, patient's pulse and respirations and patient's general tolerance of the procedure. […] The next step usually in getting the patient out of bed is sitting […]
ref: 1976, R. Winifred Heyward Johnson, Douglass W. Johnson, Introduction to Nursing Care, page 139:
text: [P]ivot to bring the patient's legs over the side of the bed. Be Smart! Stay with the patient as he dangles.
ref: 2012, Judith M. Wilkinson, Leslie S. Treas, Pocket Nursing Skills: What You Need to Know Now:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Of a patient: to be positioned with the legs hanging over the edge of the bed.
examples: text: Using proper body mechanics for dangling a patient at the side of the bed.
ref: 2012, Judith M. Wilkinson, Leslie S. Treas, Pocket Nursing Skills: What You Need to Know Now:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To position (a patient) in this way.
Derived terms: adangle
bedangle
danglable
dangleable
dangle after
dangleberry
dangler
dangle the Dunlops
dangling else
dangling link
danglingly
dangling modifier
dangling participle
dangling pointer
dangly
dingleberry
dingle-dangle
overdangle
wangle