dawdle
[ dawd-l ]
/ ˈdɔd l /
verb (used without object), daw·dled, daw·dling.
to waste time; idle; trifle; loiter: Stop dawdling and help me with these packages!
to move slowly, languidly, or dilatorily; saunter.
verb (used with object), daw·dled, daw·dling.
to waste (time) by or as if by trifling (usually followed by away): He dawdled away the whole morning.
RELATED WORDS
debtor, offender, hoodlum, felon, wrongdoer, lawbreaker, defaulter, vagrant, beggar, slowpoke, loafer, idler, lounger, straggler, procrastinator, sluggard, slug, snail, plodder, slouch
Nearby words
- davys,
- davys, john,
- daw,
- dawah,
- dawbake,
- dawes,
- dawes act of 1887,
- dawes plan,
- dawes, charles gates,
- dawes, william
Origin of dawdle
First recorded in 1650–60; variant of daddle to toddle
SYNONYMS FOR dawdle
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for dawdler
But he knows that he is just a dawdler compared to Chomsky, the great big mindbender.
He had been called a dawdler and a trifler and a do-nothing.
Under Handicap|Jackson GregoryI am but a dawdler, a do-nothing, the butt and laughing-stock of all brave men.
Helmet of Navarre|Bertha RunkleAnd a weakling, a dawdler like himself, must reply to a hero like that!
The Torrent|Vicente Blasco Ibaez
dawdle
/ (ˈdɔːdəl) /
verb
(intr) to be slow or lag behind
(when tr, often foll by away) to waste (time); trifle
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
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper