dilly
Americannoun
-
dillies
plural
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dilly
An Americanism first recorded in 1905–10; it was at first an adjective: “wonderful,” apparently a shortening of delicious, with -y 1 (now taken as -y 2 )
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:
How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dilly dallied and worried about tech bosses?
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
Or with a dilly dipping sauce if you're fancy!
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2023
Bud Light's "dilly dilly" cheer that has popped up everywhere in the past year, from Super Bowl commercials to Ben Roethlisberger play calls to Vegas sportsbooks.
From Golf Digest ● Apr. 4, 2018
Canned fruits, dilly beans, baskets of parsnips, brussels sprouts and russet potatoes were among the fare in a fully stocked pantry.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2017
“It’s free. We just have to dig it out of the dilly trees,” Kermit said.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
He’s got options either side, but dillies and dallies.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 12, 2015
"He dillies until he can't dilly any longer; then he dallies," snapped Manhattan Presbyterian Clergyman Charles Leber.
From Time Magazine Archive
As usual, they were dillies, a superbly executed potpourri inspired by Bali's antic muse.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is redolent with some rare effluvium; pomatum-laden winds breathe across the daffadown dillies from the warm chambers of the south.
From Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by George Robert Aberigh-Mackay
Whilst we were at our last camp, Charley met a long file of native women returning, with their dillies and baskets full of shell fish, to the range; near which, very probably, fresh water existed.
From Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia : from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles, during the years 1844-1845 by Ludwig Leichhardt
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.
