dawdle

Syllables: daw·dle/ˈdɔːdl̩/US/ˈdɔdl̩/

dawdle verb: chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose. Also the alternative spelling of doddle.

Verb

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

(transitive) Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
- to dawdle away the whole morning
- [M]anaging to live on terms with both / Opposing potentates, the Power and you, / Crowned with success, but dawdle out my days / In exile here at Clairvaux, with mock love, […]1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 230–231
Synonyms:

fiddle away
(intransitive) To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time.
- Tell him, if he'll call on me, and davvdle over a diſh of tea in an afternoon, I ſhall take it kind.1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “[1781]”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume II, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 405
- 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...1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XX, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 255
Synonyms:

dally, dilly-dally, take one's time, arse about, arse around, bludge, bum around, cabbage, clown around, dick about
(intransitive) To move or walk lackadaisically.
- If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won’t get as much exercise.
- [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— […]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...
Synonyms:

loiter, idle

Noun

dawdle (plural dawdles)

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.
- 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.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
Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”).
- Lord, I have ſuch a deal to do, I ſhall ſcarce have time to ſlip on my Italian luteſting.—VVhere is this davvdle of a houſekeeper?1766, George Colman, David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, a Comedy. […], London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […]; R[oberts] Baldwin, […]; R. Davis, […]; and T[homas] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act...
Synonyms:

dawdler

Also used as

dawdle is also the alternative spelling of doddle.

dawdle meaning in Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese

dawdle in Tamil

to spend time idly and unfruitfully: நடமாடு naṭamāṭu

dawdle in Thai

to spend time idly and unfruitfully: ลีลา lii-laa, อู้ ûu

dawdle in Vietnamese

to spend time idly and unfruitfully: chờn vờn, la cà

Examples of dawdle in a sentence

You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle.1866, John Ruskin, “Crystal Virtues”, in The Ethics of the Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation...
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.1888, [Julia Clara Byrne], chapter X, in De Omnibus Rebus: An Old Man’s Discursive Ramblings on the Road of Everyday Life […], John C....
However all [Wayne] Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 – 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2023:
Blessed are the drivers who dawdleth not in the fast lane.2005, Charles Manley Brown, “Laws and Regulations”, in Thou Shalt Not Take Thyself too … Seriously: The Lighter Side of the Golden Years...

All 10 example sentences with dawdle

Synonyms of dawdle

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of dawdle

Forms of dawdle

Verb
third-person singular present	dawdles
present participle	dawdling
past participle	dawdled
past	dawdled
alternative form	daudle
second-person singular present (archaic)	dawdlest
second-person singular past (archaic)	dawdledst
third-person singular present (archaic)	dawdleth
Noun
plural	dawdles

Origin of dawdle

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.

A variant of doddle.

Words formed from dawdle

Words that rhyme with dawdle

Questions about dawdle

What does dawdle mean?: Dawdle means chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose.
What is dawdle in Tamil?: Dawdle in Tamil is நடமாடு (naṭamāṭu). See Dawdle meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dawdle in a sentence?: You all know when you learn with a will, and when you dawdle.
What part of speech is dawdle?: Dawdle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce dawdle?: Dawdle is pronounced /ˈdɔːdl̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of dawdle?: The past tense of dawdle is dawdled.

Words near dawdle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dawdle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dawdle.wav.

Cite this entry: “dawdle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dawdle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.