ضل

Arabic

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dˤal.la/

Verb

ضَلَّ • (ḍalla) I, non-past يَضِلُّ‎ (yaḍillu)

1. to go astray, to err, to lose

   Antonym: اِهْتَدَى (ihtadā)

   ضَلَّ عَنِ الطَّرِيقِ. / ضَلَّ الطَّرِيقَ.

   ḍalla ʕani ṭ-ṭarīqi. / ḍalla aṭ-ṭarīqa.

   He went astray from the way.

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 1:7:

     صِرٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ ٱلْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا ٱلضَّالِّينَ

     ṣirāṭa llaḏīna ʔanʕamta ʕalayhim ḡayri l-maḡḍūbi ʕalayhim walā ḍ-ḍāllīna

     The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked anger or of those who are astray

Conjugation

References

• Wehr, Hans (1979) “ضل”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Noun

ضَلّ • (ḍall) m

1. verbal noun of ضَلَّ (ḍalla) (form I)

Declension

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic ظِلّ (ẓill).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dˤall/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ضل • (ḍall) m (plural ضلول (ḍlūl) or ضلال (ḍlāl))

1. shadow

   Synonym: خيال (ḵyāl)

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic ظَلَّ (ẓalla).

Verb

ضل • (ḍall) (nonpast يضَلّ (yḍall))

1. (intransitive) to stay, to remain

   Synonym: بِقِي (biʔi)

   ضَلَّيْت بِالبَيْت

   ḍallēt bil-bēt

   I stayed home.

2. to keep doing (construed with either a present-progressive participle, عَم (ʕam), or a subjunctive verb)

   هو ضل يحكي ونحنا ضلينا ماشيين

   huwwe ḍall yiḥki w-niḥna ḍallēna māšyīn

   He kept talking and we kept walking.

Usage notes

• Uniquely, this verb can also be conjugated by substituting a matching object pronoun for the normal ending of a given conjugation. For example, ضَلّْ (ḍall, “he stayed”), ضَلَّيْتُوا (ḍallaytu, “you stayed”, plural you), بِيضَلُّوا (biḍallu, “they stay”), and ضَلِّي (ḍalli, “stay!”, feminine imperative) can alternatively be ضَلُّه (ḍallo, “he stayed”), ضَلَّيْتْكُن (ḍallaytkun, “you stayed”, plural you), بِيضَلّْهُن (biḍall(h)un, “they stay”), and ضَلِّك (ḍallik, “stay!”, feminine imperative). The conjugation ضَلَّيْنَا (ḍallayna, “we stayed”) looks the same in both paradigms.
• For some speakers, the imperative is suppleted by one fashioned on خَلَّى (ḵalla, “to let be, to keep ”). This suppletive form mandatorily uses object pronouns to conjugate: its singular forms use the base خَلِّيك (ḵallīk-). The plural can either be خَلُّوكُن (ḵallūkun, “stay!”, plural imperative) or خَلِّيكُن (ḵallīkun, “stay!”, plural imperative).

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic ظِلّ (ẓill).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dˤall/,

• Audio (al-Lidd)

  (file)

Verb

ضلّ • (ḍall) I (present بضلّ (biḍall), active participle ضايل (ḍāyil))

1. to stay, to remain

   Synonym: بقي (biʔi)

   إحنا رح نطلع، ما رح نضلّ بالبيت.

   ʔiḥna raḥ niṭlaʕ, mā raḥ nḍall bil-bēt

   We're going out, we're not going to stay at home.

2. (by extension, with enclitic determiner) to continue, to keep doing

   قلتلّه ألف مرّة ما يضلّه يسبسب.

   ʔult-illo ʔalf marra ma yḍallօ ysabsib

   I told him a thousand times not to keep cursing.

   ما تضلّكش تسأل إذا عادي.

   mā tḍallak-š tisʔal ʔiza ʕādi

   Don't go on asking if it's OK.

Conjugation