Dally vs Dawdle - What's the difference?
dally | dawdle |
To waste time in voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to trifle.
* Calamy
* Barrow
To interchange caresses, especially of a sexual nature; to use fondling; to wanton; to sport (compare dalliance)
* Shakespeare
To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
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
* 2003 , Jameson Parker, An Accidental Cowboy , page 89:
Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in .
* 1947 - Bruce Kiskaddon, Rhymes and Ranches
To spend time idly and unfruitfully, to waste time.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 29
, author=Neil Johnston
, title=Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn
, work=BBC Sport
* Johnson
To spend (time) without haste or purpose.
To move or walk lackadaisically.
* Thackeray
As verbs the difference between dally and dawdle
is that dally is to waste time in voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to trifle while dawdle is to spend time idly and unfruitfully, to waste time.As nouns the difference between dally and dawdle
is that dally is several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping while dawdle is a dawdler.dally
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl)Verb
- We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer.
- We have put off God, and dallied with his grace.
- Not dallying with a brace of courtesans.
- The end of the top rope he dallied around the gooseneck trailer hitch.
Synonyms
* dilly-dallyEtymology 2
Possibly from (etyl) "da le la vuelta ! " ("twist it around !") by law of Hobson-Jobson.Noun
(dallies)- What matters is now if he tied hard and fast, / Or tumbled his steer with a dally .
dawdle
English
Verb
(dawdl)citation, page= , passage=However all Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.}}
- Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me.
- to dawdle away the whole morning
- If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won't get as much exercise.
- We dawdle up and down Pall Mall.
