dilly-dally
/ˈdɪliˌdæli/
dilly-dally verb: to dawdle; to waste time; to procrastinate.
Verb
dilly-dally (third-person singular simple present dilly-dallies, present participle dilly-dallying, simple past and past participle dilly-dallied)
- To dawdle; to waste time; to procrastinate.
- It is something to have been an old soldier, but more still to have been a doctor. There is no time to dilly-dally in our work.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
- “I wouldn't dilly-dally long if I were you,” said Harkless, and his advice seemed good to the shell-men.1899, Booth Tarkington, The Gentleman from Indiana, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday & McClure Co., published 1900, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- arse about, arse around, bludge, bum around, cabbage, clown around, dally, dawdle, dick about, dick around
dilly-dally meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
dilly-dally in Tamil
- தடுமாறு, தயங்கு, நேரத்தை வீணாக்கு, மனம் ஊசலாடு
dilly-dally in Malayalam
- waste time, dally, dawdle
- സമയം പാഴാക്കുക, സമയം കളയുക, തീരുമാനം എടുക്കുവാൻ മടിക്കുക, ചാഞ്ചല്യം പ്രകടമാക്കുക, അലസമായി സമയം വ്യയം ചെയ്യുക, വൃഥാ നേരം കളയുക
Synonyms of dilly-dally
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of dilly-dally
| third-person singular present | dilly-dallies |
|---|---|
| present participle | dilly-dallying |
| past participle | dilly-dallied |
| past | dilly-dallied |
| alternative form | dilly dally |
| alternative form | dillydally |
Origin of dilly-dally
Reduplication of dally.
Questions about dilly-dally
- What does dilly-dally mean?
- Dilly-dally means to dawdle; to waste time; to procrastinate.
- What is dilly-dally in Tamil?
- Dilly-dally in Tamil is தடுமாறு, தயங்கு, நேரத்தை வீணாக்கு. See Dilly-dally meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is dilly-dally?
- Dilly-dally is a verb.
- How do you pronounce dilly-dally?
- Dilly-dally is pronounced /ˈdɪliˌdæli/.
- What is the past tense of dilly-dally?
- The past tense of dilly-dally is dilly-dallied.
Words near dilly-dally in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dilly-dally (page history and authors); dilly-dally (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dilly-dally (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dilly-dally.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dilly-dally.wav.
Cite this entry: “dilly-dally.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dilly-dally. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.