dawdle.
Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
Meaning & usage
Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
to dawdle away the whole morning
To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
To move or walk lackadaisically.
If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won’t get as much exercise.
Where this word comes from
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”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin. The noun is derived from the verb.
An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling.
An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey.
Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
Where this word comes from
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”). All of these words are assumed to be of imitative origin. The noun is derived from the verb.
Alternative spelling of doddle (“a job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple”).
Where this word comes from
A variant of doddle.
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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.