doodle
1 Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
doodles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
doodled,
past participle, past
-
doodling
present participle
-
to draw or scribble idly.
He doodled during the whole lecture.
-
to waste (time) in aimless or foolish activity.
-
Dialect. to deceive; cheat.
noun
-
a design, figure, or the like, made by idle scribbling.
-
Archaic. a foolish or silly person.
noun
verb
-
to scribble or draw aimlessly
-
to play or improvise idly
-
to dawdle or waste time
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
doodlesimple
-
doodlessimple
-
have doodledperfect
-
has doodledperfect
-
am doodlingprogressive
-
are doodlingprogressive
-
is doodlingprogressive
-
have been doodlingperfect progressive
-
has been doodlingperfect progressive
Past
-
doodledsimple
-
had doodledperfect
-
was doodlingprogressive
-
were doodlingprogressive
-
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 found that in 82% of cases where one parent would display some problem behaviour, their doodle offspring were likely to show a more exaggerated version of that behaviour.
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
There are a lot of different looks for the drawings, partly a result of her loving every doodle I made.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
They’ve seen my jeans and how much I doodle in class.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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
Scribbles, doodles, crayon marks and stickers — evoking Lisa Frank and anime cartoons — have begun appearing on prominent Gen Z contemporary fiction covers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
Jones suggests that, although the 80-page notebook suggests that "he starts off really trying hard", as you keep turning the pages Geisel's doodles "start to take up more and more of the notebook".
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 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
While she rummages through a small bin on the bookshelf, I stare at the doodles on the wall next to me.
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
Stylist Bruce Ly was memorable in his playful, stumbling runway walk, his arms swinging in the oversized sleeves of his doodled Brett Westfall coat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
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
When we pack up to leave, I notice I’ve doodled a huge mustache on my brother.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
On a notebook on her coffee table, she wrote Cynthia Renee Ortiz, doodling hearts around her prospective married name.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
He coped with frustration by doodling during meetings and began developing the Dilbert character.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
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
The only relevant purpose I can see for this conceptual doodling, however well carried out, is to give the fifth Broadway incarnation of the 1966 show a distinctive profile.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2024
Emily pretended to be too absorbed in doodling a maze onto the margin of her notebook to have paid any attention.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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.
