dawdle
[dawd-l]
- to waste time; idle; trifle; loiter: Stop dawdling and help me with these packages!
- to move slowly, languidly, or dilatorily; saunter.
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- to waste (time) by or as if by trifling (usually followed by away): He dawdled away the whole morning.
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Origin of dawdle
First recorded in 1650–60; variant of daddle to toddle
Synonyms for dawdle
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for dawdler
debtor, offender, hoodlum, felon, wrongdoer, lawbreaker, defaulter, vagrant, beggar, slowpoke, loafer, idler, dawdler, lounger, straggler, procrastinator, sluggard, slug, snail, plodderExamples from the Web for dawdler
Contemporary Examples of dawdler
But he knows that he is just a dawdler compared to Chomsky, the great big mindbender.
Historical Examples of dawdler
I am but a dawdler, a do-nothing, the butt and laughing-stock of all brave men.
Helmet of NavarreBertha Runkle
He had been called a dawdler and a trifler and a do-nothing.
Under HandicapJackson Gregory
And a weakling, a dawdler like himself, must reply to a hero like that!
The TorrentVicente Blasco Ibaez
dawdle
- (intr) to be slow or lag behind
- (when tr, often foll by away) to waste (time); trifle
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Word Origin for dawdle
C17: of uncertain origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for dawdler
dawdle
1650s, perhaps a variant of daddle "to walk unsteadily." Perhaps influenced by daw, because the bird was regarded as sluggish and silly. Not in general use until c.1775. Related: Dawdled; dawdling.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper