dilly dally
dilly dally is the alternative spelling of dilly-dally.
Meaning of dilly-dally
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
- Synonyms:
- arse about, arse around, bludge, bum around, cabbage, clown around, dally, dawdle, dick about, dick around
Forms of dilly dally
| third-person singular present | dilly dallies |
|---|---|
| present participle | dilly dallying |
| past participle | dilly dallied |
| past | dilly dallied |
Questions about dilly dally
- What is dilly dally the alternative spelling of?
- Dilly dally is the alternative spelling of dilly-dally.
Words near dilly dally in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dilly dally (page history and authors); dilly-dally (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.
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Cite this entry: “dilly dally.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dilly_dally. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.