dawdle

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English

WOTD – 23 February 2023

Etymology 1

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”).

The noun is derived from the verb.

Pronunciation

Verb

dawdle (third-person singular simple present dawdles, present participle dawdling, simple past and past participle dawdled)

  1. (transitive) Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
    to dawdle away the whole morning
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
      Synonyms: dally, dilly-dally, take one's time; see also Thesaurus:loiter
      • 1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “”, in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. , volume II, London: Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, , →OCLC, page 405:
        Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.
      • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XX, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 255:
        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.
      • 1866, John Ruskin, “Crystal Virtues”, in The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC, page 90:
        You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle. There's no doubt of conscience about that, I suppose?
      • 1888, [Julia Clara Byrne], chapter X, in De Omnibus Rebus: An Old Man’s Discursive Ramblings on the Road of Everyday Life , John C. Nimmo , →OCLC, pages 263–264:
        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.
      • 1898, John Abercromby, “Charms of the East Finns, Russians, Letts, etc.”, in The Pre- and Proto-historic Finns: Both Eastern and Western with the Magic Songs of the West Finns, volume II, London: David Nutt , →OCLC, § 86 (Against the Cow-house Snake), subsection b, page 172:
        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, […]
      • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 – 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 2023-02-03:
        However all [Wayne] Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.
    2. To move or walk lackadaisically.
      If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won’t get as much exercise.
      • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which the Reader is Introduced to the Very Best of Company”, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC, page 427:
        [W]e, who, in muddy boots, dawdle up and down Pall Mall, and peep into the coaches as they drive up with the great folks in their feathers— […]
      • 1872, William Black, “Saved!”, in The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton. , 2nd edition, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 267:
        […] I began to wonder if this Arthur were really the same lad she used to pet and think so much of when he came down to Leatherhead and dawdled with my Lady and Bell along the Surrey lanes of an evening.
      • 2005, Charles Manley Brown, “Laws and Regulations”, in Thou Shalt Not Take Thyself too … Seriously: The Lighter Side of the Golden Years, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 68:
        Blessed are the drivers who dawdleth not in the fast lane.
        A deliberate use of an archaic form of the word.
Conjugation
Conjugation of dawdle
infinitive (to) dawdle
present tense past tense
1st-person singular dawdle dawdled
2nd-person singular dawdle, dawdlest† dawdled, dawdledst†
3rd-person singular dawdles, dawdleth† dawdled
plural dawdle
subjunctive dawdle dawdled
imperative dawdle —
participles dawdling dawdled

†Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

dawdle (plural dawdles)

  1. An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
  2. An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
    • 2017, Colin G. Pooley, Jean Turnbull, Mags Adams, “Travelling to School”, in A Mobile Century?: Changes in Everyday Mobility in Britain in the Twentieth Century, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, →ISBN:
      For many the journey home from school was not a walk but a ‘dawdle’: it was an everyday experience that added meaning to their lives.
  3. Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”)

Etymology 2

A variant of doddle.

Pronunciation

Noun

dawdle (plural dawdles)

  1. Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”)
    • 2009, Archie Macpherson, “Thumping the Tub”, in A Game of Two Halves: The Autobiography, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:
      He was a QC from Edinburgh, wearing the black jacket and pinstripe trousers of his trade, as if straight from court, and probably persuaded to come in the belief that if you could interest the Budhill and Springboig party in the repressive Gaullist policies in Algeria then becoming Solicitor-General was a dawdle.

References

  1. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “DADDLE, v.1”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 6.
  2. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “DODDLE, v.1”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 106, column 1.
  3. ^ “dawdle, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “DAW, sb.1”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volumes II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 33, column 1.
  5. ^ “dawdle, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
  6. ^ “dawdle, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.

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