dawdle
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: dawdles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: dawdling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: dawdlest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: dawdledst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: dawdles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: dawdleth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: dawdle
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: dawdling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: dawdled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: daudle
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: dawdles
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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, […]
gloss: To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.
Mr. Collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love; for Mrs. Bennett, having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference, no sooner saw Elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass he towards the staircase, than she entered the breakfast-room, and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection.
You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle. There's no doubt of conscience about that, I suppose?
There are no idlers here; the only loungers are those who have undertaken for hire to do other people's business, and the hireling dawdleth because he is an hireling. What is his master's business to him? he neither knows its importance nor yet cares he if it be neglected.
White creature wholly white, thou winter-coloured imp, tongue-shaped and slippery, 'wall-streak' and 'rubbish of the floor,' that livest 'neath timbers of a house, that dawdlest underneath the nook, […]
However all [Wayne] Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.
gloss: To move or walk lackadaisically.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
Blessed are the drivers who dawdleth not in the fast lane.
gloss: An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
pos: noun
gloss: An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
pos: noun
examples: 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?
Derived words: dawdler
dawdlesome
dawdling
dawdlingly
Translations: