verb
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to move (a young child, etc) up and down (on the knee or in the arms)
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to pet; fondle
Other Word Forms
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.
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
On the Mississippi, Jimmy Carter drifted downstream in an imitation 19th century steamboat, waving, dancing and playing a calliope, stepping ashore periodically to shake hands, dandle babies and try to sell his energy program.
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
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.
