doodle
1 Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to draw or scribble idly.
He doodled during the whole lecture.
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to waste (time) in aimless or foolish activity.
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Dialect. to deceive; cheat.
noun
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a design, figure, or the like, made by idle scribbling.
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Archaic. a foolish or silly person.
noun
verb
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to scribble or draw aimlessly
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to play or improvise idly
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to dawdle or waste time
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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doodlesimple
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doodlessimple
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have doodledperfect
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has doodledperfect
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am doodlingprogressive
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are doodlingprogressive
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is doodlingprogressive
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have been doodlingperfect progressive
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has been doodlingperfect progressive
Past
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doodledsimple
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had doodledperfect
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was doodlingprogressive
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were doodlingprogressive
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had been doodlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of doodle1
1625–30 in archaic sense “a fool”; 1935–40 in current senses; compare Low German dudeltopf simpleton
Origin of doodle2
Probably extracted from cock-a-doodle-doo ( def. ); a euphemism for cock 3, to avoid association with cock 1, in sense “penis”
Explanation
A doodle is a casual little drawing you do, often while you're doing something else, like talking on the phone or listening to a teacher's lecture. Your history notebook might be equal parts notes and doodles. A doodle can vary from a meaningless scribble or scrawl to a detailed picture of a dog. You never draw a doodle for some specific purpose — to doodle is to draw in an aimless, haphazard way. In the 1600s, a doodle was a "simple fellow," from the German dudeltopf, "simpleton." It came to mean "foolish designs on paper" by the early 20th century.
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:
There are also synchronized motocross jumps in front of the White House, which feels like a 12-year-old’s doodle come to life.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
She brought her dog, a small, rambunctious golden doodle who kept moving around under the table.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
They compared popular designer doodle breeds - cockapoos, labradoodles and cavapoos - to their purebred parent breeds across multiple behaviour categories.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
Only, oopsie doodle, due to a serious knock on the head, Samantha forgot that she’s actually a CIA-trained black-ops agent.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2024
“And then she freaked out,” I repeated, “and went and got the tulips while we were getting the fireworks. She saw the doodle, remembered whatever she’d forgotten, and then freaked out.”
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
The enormous light-up can at the entrance features doodles of fireworks, a monster truck, and an eagle in American flag sunglasses.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
Poodle-cross dogs, also known as "doodles", have risen in popularity in recent years, making up the top three types of crossbreeds owned by dog owners, according to a 2025 survey by the Dogs Trust.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026
The comics that began as office doodles during boring meetings grew into an empire for Adams with companion books, a short-lived animated show and an ill-fated burrito line.
From Salon ● Jan. 13, 2026
Lately, Kuijstermans has spotted more Brussels griffons, Chinese cresteds and “interesting mixes”—a revenge-of-the-nerds backlash to the flocks of fluffy doodles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
As she got a bit older, still enduring the Luftwaffe’s bombs, her drawings showed curious little doodles.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
In her teenage years, she doodled poems in her diaries and made up verses about physics to help her remember things for her exams.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
She developed, writes Ms. Lutz, a “weird, witchy” sense of humor, doodled violent images in the margins of her books and made a specialty, in her poetry and prose, of the “nocturnal and crepuscular.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
And sometimes, it seems like people just get bored, like the Whitney Museum guard who doodled “I Love you Tushee, Love, Buns” on a Roy Lichtenstein painting in 1993.
From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2022
On the edge of his notepad, he’s absent-mindedly doodled it again, BX2AN.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2022
I absentmindedly doodled one on my homework last night and had to tear it into a billion pieces and flush them down the toilet.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
From the moment she could pick up a pen, she was doodling over everything possible - from school textbooks to spare scraps of paper.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2025
Meyer began doodling designs for a boxing game that could be played at home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
His campaign repeatedly put him in positions to reach strategic audiences, as campaigns do down the stretch, and he spent each session essentially doodling with crayons on the wall.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2024
Armed with a Uniball pen and a Strathmore sketchpad, Mr. Polan chronicled the life of the city with an observational hunger that earned him the status of a doodling New York folk hero.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2024
Eden is doodling something on paper at the other end of the table.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
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.
