Adjacent Words

Dawdle definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DAW'DLE, v.i. To waste time; to trifle.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: take one's time; proceed slowly [syn: linger, dawdle] [ant: belt along, bucket along, cannonball along, hasten, hie, hotfoot, pelt along, race, rush, rush along, speed, step on it]
2: waste time; "Get busy--don't dally!" [syn: dally, dawdle]
3: hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc. [syn: lag, dawdle, fall back, fall behind]

Merriam Webster's

verb (dawdled; dawdling) Etymology: origin unknown Date: circa 1656 intransitive verb 1. to spend time idly 2. to move lackadaisically transitive verb to spend fruitlessly or lackadaisically <dawdled the day away> Synonyms: see delay • dawdler noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 intr. a walk slowly and idly. b delay; waste time. 2 tr. (foll. by away) waste (time). --n. an act or instance of dawdling. Derivatives: dawdler n. Etymology: perh. rel. to dial. daddle, doddle idle, dally

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dawdle Daw"dle (d[add]"d'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Dawdled; p. pr. & vb. n. Dawdling.] [Cf. Daddle.] To waste time in trifling employment; to trifle; to saunter. Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. --Johnson. We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall. --Thackeray.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dawdle Daw"dle, v. t. To waste by trifling; as, to dawdle away a whole morning.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dawdle Daw"dle, n. A dawdler. --Colman & Carrick.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(dawdles, dawdling, dawdled) If you dawdle, you spend more time than is necessary going somewhere. Eleanor will be back any moment, if she doesn't dawdle... VERB: V

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. Trifle, dally, fiddle, lose time, waste time, idle away time, fritter away time, fool away time.

Moby Thesaurus

abide, await, bide, bide the issue, clock watcher, continue, dallier, dally, dawdler, delay, diddle, diddler, dillydallier, dillydally, do-nothing, dolittle, doodle, doodler, drag, drag out, draw out, drone, dwell on, extend, faineant, fall behind, falter, flag, foot-dragger, gentleman of leisure, get behind, goldbrick, goldbricker, goof off, goof-off, halt, hang about, hang around, hang back, hold everything, hold on, hold your horses, idle, idler, lag, laggard, laze, lengthen, lengthen out, lie-abed, linger, linger behind, linger on, lingerer, loafer, loiter, loiterer, loller, lollygag, lotus-eater, lounge, lounger, lubber, mark time, mope, moper, piddle, plodder, poke, potterer, procrastinate, procrastinator, prolong, protract, putterer, shilly-shally, sit tight, sit up, sleepyhead, slouch, sloucher, slow goer, slow-foot, slowbelly, slowpoke, slug, sluggard, snail, spin out, stay, stay up, stick around, stick-in-the-mud, straggle, stretch out, take time, tarry, temporize, time killer, time waster, tortoise, trail, trail behind, trifler, wait, wait a minute, wait and see, waiter on Providence, waste time