footle
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
-
to loiter aimlessly; potter
-
to talk nonsense
noun
Etymology
Origin of footle
First recorded in 1890–95; origin uncertain; cf. footy
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:
SETTEE, do try not to footle like this!
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, January 3, 1891 by Various
Think of the people to whom your bottles of footle go!
From Tono Bungay by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Of course, he would just footle; he always had.
From The Lee Shore by Dame Rose Macaulay
Looking at me through the footle, distorted little microscope of their own silly scrubby little souls!
From Ptomaine Street by Carolyn Wells
Now, really, Settee, do try not to footle like this!
From Voces Populi by F. Anstey
About two hours later, it was recognised Arthur was "an unanticipated footling breech", the Record of Inquest states.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2023
That left Jonathan with lifelong feelings of guilt, which led him on several occasions to announce that he was abandoning what he once called “this footling flibbertigibbet world of theater.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2019
This is in the grand scheme of things a footling detail, and there are many thousands more lines, and two more realms, to get through.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 22, 2013
Still, he was expected to risk body and bone in a footling contest.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 23, 2010
Any other generation at your age would be footling around, living a shallow existence in the valleys, or just beginning to climb a slope to higher things.
From Tell England A Study in a Generation by Ernest Raymond
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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.
