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
She turns that into a tune: “A moth-er, a broth-er, a fath-er. A doodle, a dandle, a candle.”
From "The Unfinished Angel" by Sharon Creech
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
The subtile Nile catches him softly in his cool arms, dandles him, kisses Him, flatters him, wooes him imperceptibly onwards.
From Idolatry A Romance by Julian Hawthorne
He dandles on his knee a little princess, daughter of Amenhotep III., whose foster-father he was, and who died before him.
From Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt by G. (Gaston) Maspero
Then she dandles him in her arms, and packs off the pinched little hope of the family, so far as wishing can do it, to the domains of Licinus, or the palace of Croesus.
From Folk Lore Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century by James Napier
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 James Branch Cabell
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
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
Call the child to be dandled with rhymes,livened with drum-talk, cuddled and calmedwith flutes and fiddles, anthems and psalmody.Welcome the child with a sky full of chimes.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 18, 2010
I could see the stream where Denna and I had dandled our feet.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Recording the old popular tune “I Don’t Know Why” in 1950, for his outstanding Columbia Records debut, Garner’s fingers lick at the keys and he drags the melody along, dandling it, relishing it.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
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
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
The academicians watched my mother as they played with me, to see how she took their games, their dandling of her beloved son, their demonstration of amiable paternity; and her smile warmed us all.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" 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.
