doodle
1 Americanverb (used with or without object)
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doodles,
present (3rd person singular)
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doodled,
past participle, past
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doodling
present participle
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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
They compared popular designer doodle breeds - cockapoos, labradoodles and cavapoos - to their purebred parent breeds across multiple behaviour categories.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
Eyeworks frames fill the tables and each clothing tag is a different elaborate doodle illustrated by Staunton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
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
“It’s a doodle to remember because that’s when England won the World Cup.”
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
The chronological installation begins with Evans’s first two pen-and-ink drawings from about 1935: abstract radiating eyes, spirals, zigzags and squiggles—feverish doodles resembling ancient pictographic narratives set down in a trance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
But he just doodles pictures of hamburgers during those.
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 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
I stare at the walls, at all of the drawings and doodles.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
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
Hockney doodled away, drawing trees and houses and filling the bleak concrete space with swaths of color.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2023
She doodled on whatever surface she could find — in notebooks, sketchbooks, on her desk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
Does the heart Omar Riaz doodled on Skye’s homework mean he likes her?
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
On a notebook on her coffee table, she wrote Cynthia Renee Ortiz, doodling hearts around her prospective married name.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
Growing up in Greater Manchester, he says his biggest childhood involvement with the sport was through doodling in football-themed colouring books.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2026
Meyer began doodling designs for a boxing game that could be played at home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
I’ll sit in my kitchen — I’ve got nothing but birds chirping and the sun’s coming in — doodling for hours if I’m allowed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025
I kept my eyes away from the door, doodling idly on the cover of my notebook.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
