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:
Of course, he would just footle; he always had.
From The Lee Shore by Macaulay, Rose, Dame
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 Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Looking at me through the footle, distorted little microscope of their own silly scrubby little souls!
From Ptomaine Street by Wells, Carolyn
Albeit to young Mr Benny pure literature made no appeal, and had even been summarised by him as "footle," in the business of advertising he developed a curious literary twist.
From Hocken and Hunken by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
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
The problem is, almost certainly, with the script itself – its footling dialogue about what to wear and rationing, its flurries of melodrama.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 6, 2013
I ought to tell you that since we left England he has taken up painting footling little pictures, and has got the artistic temperament badly.
From Uneasy Money by Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
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.
