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
I think it's the most footle business I ever heard of!
From In the Onyx Lobby by Carolyn Wells
Of course, he would just footle; he always had.
From The Lee Shore by Dame Rose Macaulay
Permission to footle in the lab. on half-holidays, and all the rest of it?
From Acton's Feud A Public School Story by Frederick Swainson
"I suppose you'll just footle, then," his friend had summed it up, and left him, because it was half-past six, and they had dinner at that strange hour.
From The Lee Shore by Dame Rose Macaulay
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
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
Still, he was expected to risk body and bone in a footling contest.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 23, 2010
Are you sure that would be worse than living with a man she did love, if he was a footling person?
From Heartbreak House by Bernard Shaw
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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.
