Dawdle

/ˈdɔːdl̩/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive) Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
2. To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
3. To move or walk lackadaisically.
4. An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
5. An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
6. Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
7. Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).

Example Sentences

to dawdle away the whole morning

[M]anaging to live on terms with both / Opposing potentates, the Power and you, / Crowned with success, but dawdle out my days / In exile here at Clairvaux, with mock love, […]

Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.

Mr. Collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his successful love; for Mrs. Bennett, having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference, no sooner saw Elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass he towards the staircase, than she entered the breakfast-room, and congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection.

You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle. There's no doubt of conscience about that, I suppose?

There are no idlers here; the only loungers are those who have undertaken for hire to do other people's business, and the hireling dawdleth because he is an hireling. What is his master's business to him? he neither knows its importance nor yet cares he if it be neglected.

White creature wholly white, thou winter-coloured imp, tongue-shaped and slippery, 'wall-streak' and 'rubbish of the floor,' that livest 'neath timbers of a house, that dawdlest underneath the nook, […]

However all [Wayne] Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.

Synonyms for dawdle

Antonyms for dawdle

Related Words

Word Forms

• dawdles
• dawdling
• dawdled
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• dawdle
• dawdlest
• dawdledst
• dawdleth
• -
• daudle

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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