▪ I. dawdle, v.
(ˈdɔːd(ə)l)
Also daudle.
[Not in Bailey; nor in Johnson's Dict. (though used by himself in 1781). It apparently became common about 1775 (at first chiefly in feminine use). Ussher's example (a 1656) was prob. local or dialectal. Supposed to be a local variant of daddle, but used in a more reprehensory sense, perh. by some association with daw n. sense 2 b.]
1. intr. To idle, waste time; to be sluggish or lazy; to loiter, linger, dally.
| a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 382 While he stood dawdling was taken short in his undertakings. 1781 Johnson 3 June in Boswell, If he'll call on me, and dawdle over a dish of tea in an afternoon. 1796 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xx. 97 Mrs. Bennet, having dawdled about in the vestibule to watch for the end of the conference. 1819 Scott Let. to D. Terry 18 Apr. in Lockhart, A propensity which..the women very expressively call dawdling. 1866 Ruskin Eth. Dust v. (1883) 90 You all know when you learn with a will and when you dawdle. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxii. 307 The rest of us dawdled along the road. |
2. quasi-trans. (usually with away).
| 1768 F. Burney Early Diary July, I could not..ask for it..and so dawdled and fretted the time away until Tuesday evening. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 230 Dawdle out my days In exile here at Clairvaux. 1887 Spectator 21 May 696/2 To employ with profit many hours that might otherwise be dawdled away. |
▪ II. dawdle, n.
(ˈdɔːd(ə)l)
Also 8 daudle.
[f. prec.]
1. One who is the personification of dawdling; esp. a dawdling girl or woman.
| a 1764 Lloyd Chit-Chat Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 185 Be quick—why sure the gipsy sleeps! Look how the drawling daudle creeps. 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. III. 141 Mrs. Thornley was rather too much of, what she [Mrs. M.] called, a dawdle, to please her. 1843 F. E. Paget Pageant 118 His wife..was..one of those helpless, indolent dawdles that are fit to be nothing but fine ladies. 1879 Baring-Gould Germany I. 392 The sharp clever boy goes into business, the dunce or dawdle into the army. |
2. The act of dawdling.
| 1813 Lady Burghersh Lett. (1893) 38 What with dawdles and delays of the German post-boys. 1876 Green Stray Stud. 70 The evenings are..a dawdle indoors as the day has been a dawdle out. |