verb
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to move (a young child, etc) up and down (on the knee or in the arms)
-
to pet; fondle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dandlesimple
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dandlessimple
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have dandledperfect
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has dandledperfect
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am dandlingprogressive
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are dandlingprogressive
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is dandlingprogressive
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have been dandlingperfect progressive
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has been dandlingperfect progressive
Past
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dandledsimple
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had dandledperfect
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was dandlingprogressive
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were dandlingprogressive
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had been dandlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dandle
First recorded in 1520–30; origin uncertain; perhaps akin to Italian dandola, dondola “a child's doll” and its derivative verb dandolare, dondolare “to rock, swing, dangle,” and akin to French dandiner “to swing back and forth, dandle” and se dandiner “to make a hip movement, sway the hips, gyrate, waddle”
Explanation
To dandle a baby or small child is to bounce him on your lap. You might dandle your little nephew to make him laugh. When you dandle a baby, you jiggle her in your arms or move her gently up and down on your knees. Your eccentric aunt Iris might dandle her big Maine Coon cat on her lap, or her little toy poodle, but you're most likely to find the verb dandle alongside the word baby. The origin of this sixteenth century word is uncertain, though it may be related to the imitative Old French dandin, "small bell."
Vocabulary lists containing dandle
The Odyssey
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The Girl Who Drank the Moon
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Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece
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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:
Ropes dandle like a makeshift cape against her back.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2023
Buy your house and invite your mother-in-law over to dandle the grandkids on her knees as much as she likes, but don’t ask them to move in with you.
From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2016
And as I recline next to Lillian Hellman, I dandle Miss Kathie's adopted baby on my knee.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 26, 2010
Queen Min used to dandle him on her royal knee.
From Time Magazine Archive
I wondered idly if it felt good, like when you dandle your feet in the water after a long day’s walking.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
The stately U.S. elm, which inspires the weekend artist and dandles the infant oriole, is in worse danger than ever.
From Time Magazine Archive
He has no pipe, and he talks kindly to his wife, and dandles his son on his knee.
From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Thomson, Hugh
He smiled whimsically, and presently one arm swept beneath her knees, so that presently he held her as one dandles a baby; and presently his stiff and graying beard caressed her burning cheek.
From Chivalry by Cabell, James Branch
A father who never dandles his child on his knee cannot have a very keen sense of the responsibilities of paternity.
From In Darkest England and the Way Out by Booth, William
"And the flowers half-opened on the surface," replied Minha, "and which the current dandles like the breeze!"
From Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon by Verne, Jules
David Jordan, 53, of Northwest Washington, dandled his 6-month-old son on his lap as the rest of his family played on a blanket.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2022
Now he dandled a baby on his knee, greeted his former cellmate’s mother, checked his phone, answered a call, then yelled congratulations to another family.
From New York Times ● Aug. 13, 2022
Angie dandled our infant daughter off to the side of the kitchen while we pretended to cook something for the camera.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 25, 2017
And then we see Walt’s baby Holly, in a pink hat with cat’s ears, being dandled on Hank’s knee.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2012
I could see the stream where Denna and I had dandled our feet.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
And those who know Farage well understand his very human reluctance to see someone else dandling his baby on their knee.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2019
Moments later, Rick imagined him and his friends blissfully sitting around an al fresco table at Alexandria, eating a meal, with Abraham still alive and Glenn dandling Maggie’s baby.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 24, 2016
Som was on the cellphone with their older daughter, who was away at school; Niang, a teacher, was dandling their 7-month-old baby, their third child.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2015
Elsewhere, hugging Down syndrome kids on a rope line and dandling her own on her lap, Palin is downright inspirational.
From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2012
With frantic eye, I sought my cradle-songs, the songs of comfort she might sing for me again, dandling me in her arms.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
