lollygag
Americanverb (used without object)
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to spend time idly; loaf.
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to indulge in kisses and caresses; make love; neck.
verb
Usage
What does lollygag mean? To lollygag is to dilly-dally, dawdle, loaf around, or goof off. If you’re lollygagging, you’re wasting time by moving slowly or doing something less important than what you should be (or doing nothing at all). Lollygag is primarily used in the United States. It is synonymous with the very similar spelled lallygag, but lollygag is more commonly used. Both are very informal. Example: Coach yelled at Spencer for lollygagging at practice.
Etymology
Origin of lollygag
An Americanism dating back to 1860–65; origin uncertain
Explanation
To lollygag is to be slow or idle or lazy. You might say to your dawdling friends, "Don't lollygag! We'll miss our bus!" You lollygag when you take you own sweet time walking to your piano teacher's house, and you also lollygag when you lounge lazily in a hammock under a tree. The word lollygag is an American invention, a slang term that's sometimes spelled lallygag and may stem from the dialectical "tongue" meaning of lolly.
Vocabulary lists containing lollygag
On the Come Up
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Look Both Ways
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"Marita's Bargain" by Malcolm Gladwell
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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:
This is not a thing that can lollygag along.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2023
Yet we still go larking lightly into these wars and lollygag as we leave them.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021
Inside the park, they lollygag in meadows along the main road, coexisting easily with the tourists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2016
They were under strict orders from their mother to run – not lollygag or walk or jog, but run – directly home after hitting the road’s curve.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 3, 2016
Marita went on: I leave school at five p.m., and if I don’t lollygag around, then I will get home around five-thirty.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
On sitcoms like these, the kids lollygagged around, propping skateboards by front doors before sitting down to dinner tables piled high with pizza boxes.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2021
But mostly, we lollygagged in our treehouse, playing cards, reading novels and watching the waters eddying past us on the way to their dizzying plunge.
From New York Times ● Oct. 23, 2015
The Yankees’ hitting coach, Kevin Long, implied that Cano was a dog because, even as he had played every inning of every game, he sometimes lollygagged running to first base.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2014
Having a stash of snacks on-hand, for both hosting and lollygagging on the couch, will make the holiday sprint so much more enjoyable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
“I can’t just be out there and just lollygagging around. I’ve got to be focused. I have to pay attention to all the little details. I have to be on cue and poised every game.”
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2024
On Monday evening, a Times reporter spotted the otter lollygagging along the coast between the lighthouse and the nearby surfer statue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
My lollygagging felt highly therapeutic, for a moment.
From Salon ● May 9, 2022
If it looked like I was stalling, the neighbors would snitch, and she'd jump down my throat and tack on another week for lollygagging.
From "When I Was the Greatest" by Jason Reynolds
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.
