noun
Meaning 1
An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
dawdle
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈdɔːdl̩/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ˈdɔdl̩/
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cot-caught-merger: /ˈdɑdl̩/
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homophone: doddle (cot–caught merger)
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rhymes with -ɔːdəl
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈdɒdl̩/
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Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɒdəl
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homophone: doddle
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CMU ARPABET: D AO1 D AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dawdler
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
- to dawdle away the whole morning
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: fiddle away
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dally, dilly-dally, take one's time, arse about, arse around, bludge, bum around, cabbage, clown around, dawdle, dick about, dick around, diddle, dretch, drumble, faff, faff about, faff around, fanny about, fanny around, fart about, fart around, fiddle about, fiddle around, fool about, fool around, footle, forslow, goof around, goof off, hang about, hang around, hang out, horse around, idle, jerk off, lallygag, lamp, laze, laze about, laze around, linger, loaf, loaf about, loaf around, loiter, lollop, lollygag, mess around, mill about, mill around, muck about, muck around, piddle, pingle, stand by, tarry, tool around, waste time, while
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To move or walk lackadaisically.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
- If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won’t get as much exercise.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: loiter, idle
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: lag, fall back, fall behind
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: follow
Narrower terms: drag, trail, get behind, hang back, drop behind, drop back
verb
Meaning 9
waste time
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- Get busy--don't dally!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dally
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: act, behave, do
verb
Meaning 10
take one's time; proceed slowly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: linger
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: move
History
Etymology
The verb is possibly: * a variant of daddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk or work slowly, dawdle, saunter, trifle”) or doddle (“(Britain, dialectal) to walk feebly or slowly, dawdle, idle, saunter, stroll”), possibly influenced by daw (“(Britain, dialectal) lazy, good-for-nothing person, sluggard”); or * borrowed from Middle Low German dȫdelen (“to dawdle”), related to Saterland Frisian döädelje (“to dawdle”); compare also German daddeln (“to play”), German verdaddeln (“to waste (time), neglect, ruin”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin. The noun is derived from the verb.
A variant of doddle.
Across languages
Translations
164 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Azerbaijani: eşələnmək — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Catalan: torbar — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Chinese Mandarin: 磨 (mó) — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Czech: lelkovat — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Danish: dovne — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Danish: snøle — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Esperanto: lanti — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Finnish: vetelehtiä — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Galician: enredar — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- German: herumtrödeln — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- German: herumlungern — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- German: herumbummeln — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Hungarian: elpiszmog — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Hungarian: elszöszmötöl — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Macedonian: се за́влечка (se závlečka) — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Polish: gmerać — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Polish: grzebać — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Polish: guzdrać — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Polish: ociągać — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Russian: каните́литься (kanitélitʹsja) — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Russian: ме́длить (médlitʹ) — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Russian: ме́шкать (méškatʹ) — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Turkish: boşa geçirmek — to spend (time) without haste or purpose
- Albanian: sjell — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Arabic: قز (gazz) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Bulgarian: безделнича (bezdelniča) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Catalan: entretenir-se — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Catalan: gallinejar — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Catalan: ronsejar — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Cebuano: nagpainday-inday — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Cantonese: 咪咪摸摸 — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Cantonese: 咪摸 — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hakka Chinese: 咪咪摸摸 (mi1 mi1 mo1 mo1) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hakka Chinese: 咪摸 (mi1 mo1) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese: 挨絲撓倚 /挨丝挠倚 (oe-si-lǎ-óa) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 蹭 (cèng) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 麦 — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 夌 (líng) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 磨蹭 (mócèng) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 蘑菇 (mógu, mógū, móguo) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 磨叽 (mòji) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 夋 (qūn) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Chinese Mandarin: 磨嘰 /磨叽 (mòji) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Czech: flákat se — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Czech: poflakovat se — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Danish: dovne — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Danish: snøle — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Dutch: dralen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Dutch: leuteren — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Dutch: talmen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Dutch: klungelen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Esperanto: lanti — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: himmailla — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kuhnailla — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kuhnia — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kuhnustella — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kupata — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kupeksia — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: kuppailla — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: nuhjata — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: vetelehtiä — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: viipyä — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Finnish: viivytellä — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: flâner — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: lambiner — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: musarder — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: pateter — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: traînailler — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- French: traîner — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Galician: enredar — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: bummeln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: klüngeln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: nölen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: plempern — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: säumen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: trödeln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- German: Zeit totschlagen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- East Central German: attln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- East Central German: attln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- East Central German: dalln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- East Central German: damprn — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- East Central German: dauteln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Haitian Creole: flannen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Haitian Creole: mize — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hebrew: הִתְמַהְמֵהַּ (hitmahméah) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: lebzsel — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: pepecsel — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: piszmog — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: szöszmötöl — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: tesz-vesz — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Hungarian: vacakol — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Icelandic: drolla — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Interlingua: tardar — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Italian: bighellonare — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Italian: gingillarsi — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Italian: lellare — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Italian: traccheggiàre — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Jamaican Creole: lime — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Japanese: 油を売る (abura o uru) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Japanese: ちんたらする (chintara suru) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Japanese: だらだらする (daradara suru) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Japanese: 道草する (michikusa suru) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Latin: cūnctor — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Low German: draueln — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Luxembourgish: driibsen — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Macedonian: ѕе́нѕа (dzéndza) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Macedonian: одолговле́кува (odolgovlékuva) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Macedonian: се вле́чка (se vléčka) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Malagasy: mihebinkenina — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Māori: hāmure — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Māori: whakatairuhi — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Polish: bałamucić — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Polish: zbałamucić — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Polish: marudzić — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Polish: żmudzić — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Polish: zmudzić — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Romanian: mocăi — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Romanian: omorî timpul — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Romanian: tărăgăna — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Romanian: trena — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Russian: безде́льничать (bezdélʹničatʹ) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Russian: копа́ться (kopátʹsja) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Russian: топта́ться (toptátʹsja) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Northern Sami: heaibat — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Skolt-Sami: äjjned — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Scots: daver — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Scots: haiver — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Scots: trottle — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Spanish: pelotearse — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Swedish: slå dank — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Tamil: நடமாடு (naṭamāṭu) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Thai: ลีลา (lii-laa) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Thai: อู้ (ûu) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Turkish: oyalanmak — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Ukrainian: ба́братися (bábratysja) — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Vietnamese: chờn vờn — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Vietnamese: la cà — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Welsh: hoetian — to spend time idly and unfruitfully
- Bulgarian: шляя се (šljaja se) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Chinese Mandarin: 磨磨蹭蹭 (mómócèngcèng) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Danish: daske — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Danish: drive — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Finnish: lampsia — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Finnish: velttoilla — to move or walk lackadaisically
- German: bummeln — to move or walk lackadaisically
- German: trödeln — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: csámborog — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: cselleng — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: flangál — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: kódorog — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: kószál — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: lézeng — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: lődörög — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: lófrál — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: őgyeleg — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: ténfereg — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Hungarian: teng-leng — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Macedonian: се вле́чка (se vléčka) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Māori: taparuru — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Māori: tonanawe — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Russian: плести́сь (plestísʹ) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Russian: шля́ться (šljátʹsja) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Russian: тащи́ться (taščítʹsja) — to move or walk lackadaisically
- Turkish: aylakça dolaşmak — to move or walk lackadaisically