Library / English Dictionary

DAWDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.

Synonyms:

dawdle; fall back; fall behind; lag

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "dawdle" is one way to...):

follow (to travel behind, go after, come after)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dawdle"):

drag; drop back; drop behind; get behind; hang back; trail (to lag or linger behind)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dawdler (someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Waste time

Example:

Get busy--don't dally!

Synonyms:

dally; dawdle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "dawdle" is one way to...):

act; behave; do (behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dawdler (someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind)

dawdling (the deliberate act of delaying and playing instead of working)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Take one's time; proceed slowly

Synonyms:

dawdle; linger

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "dawdle" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dawdler (someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The Musgroves could hardly be more ready to invite than he to come, particularly in the morning, when he had no companion at home, for the Admiral and Mrs Croft were generally out of doors together, interesting themselves in their new possessions, their grass, and their sheep, and dawdling about in a way not endurable to a third person, or driving out in a gig, lately added to their establishment.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A personality disorder characterized by an indirect resistance to demands for adequate social and occupational performance; anger and opposition to authority and the expectations of others that is expressed covertly by obstructionism, procrastination, stubbornness, dawdling, forgetfulness, and intentional inefficiency.

(Passive-Aggressive Personality, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

I hope I shall have done something to be proud of by that time, but I'm such a lazy dog, I'm afraid I shall dawdle, Jo.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Between ourselves, Edmund, nodding significantly at his mother, it was cutting the roses, and dawdling about in the flower-garden, that did the mischief.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Restless and dissatisfied every where, her sister could never obtain her opinion of any article of purchase, however it might equally concern them both: she received no pleasure from anything; was only impatient to be at home again, and could with difficulty govern her vexation at the tediousness of Mrs. Palmer, whose eye was caught by every thing pretty, expensive, or new; who was wild to buy all, could determine on none, and dawdled away her time in rapture and indecision.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I'm tired of dawdling, and mean to work like a man.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She might scruple to make use of the words, but she must and did feel that her mother was a partial, ill-judging parent, a dawdle, a slattern, who neither taught nor restrained her children, whose house was the scene of mismanagement and discomfort from beginning to end, and who had no talent, no conversation, no affection towards herself; no curiosity to know her better, no desire of her friendship, and no inclination for her company that could lessen her sense of such feelings.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Everybody dawdled that morning, and it was noon before the girls found energy enough even to take up their worsted work.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That she should be tired now, however, gives me no surprise; for there is nothing in the course of one's duties so fatiguing as what we have been doing this morning: seeing a great house, dawdling from one room to another, straining one's eyes and one's attention, hearing what one does not understand, admiring what one does not care for.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The vacation is nearly over, the stints are all done, and we are ever so glad that we didn't dawdle.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)