dilly-dally
Britishverb
Etymology
Origin of dilly-dally
C17: by reduplication from dally
Explanation
When you dilly-dally, you dawdle or waste time. If a tourist dilly-dallies too long at the Eiffel Tower, they might miss their train to Biarritz. Dilly-dally comes from the verb dally, which originally meant "to chat idly" and was later defined as "to linger or loiter." The dilly was added to give the word some alliterative flare. When people dilly-dally, they procrastinate or drag their feet: "I'm leaving for the airport at ten o' clock sharp, so don't dilly-dally!"
Vocabulary lists containing dilly-dally
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.
Dilly-Dally and Shilly-Shally, they belongs to us as women be.
From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Reade, Charles
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.
