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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dally.

To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈdæli/
  1. To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.

  2. To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet

    ambitransitive
  3. To delay unnecessarily; to while away.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English dalien, from Anglo-Norman delaier. Doublet of delay.

noun/ˈdæli/
  1. Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping.

Where this word comes from

Possibly from Spanish dale vuelta (“twist it around”) by law of Hobson-Jobson, from dale + la + vuelta.

verb/ˈdæli/
  1. To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal

Where this word comes from

Possibly from Spanish dale vuelta (“twist it around”) by law of Hobson-Jobson, from dale + la + vuelta.

noun/ˈdæli/
  1. Alternative form of dolly (“offering of fruit or flowers”).

    India · alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.