dawdle
/'dɔ:dl/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (intransitive):
- To move or act slowly; to take more time than necessary to do something.
- To waste time; to spend time idly or aimlessly.
Verb (transitive):
- To waste or spend (time) in a slow, idle, or aimless manner.
Usage
- Intransitive Verb: Used to describe a person's slow or idle behavior.
- Don't dawdle on your way to school.
- She dawdled over her coffee, reading the newspaper.
- Transitive Verb: Used with "away" to indicate wasting a period of time.
- He dawdled away the whole afternoon.
- We must not dawdle our time.
Examples
- Intransitive Use:
- If you continue to dawdle, we will be late for the movie.
- The children dawdled along the path, looking at every flower.
- Transitive Use (with "away"):
- He dawdled away his youth without learning a trade.
- It's easy to dawdle away a beautiful summer day.
Advanced Usage
- "To dawdle over something": To spend an excessive amount of time doing something slowly.
- He tends to dawdle over his meals.
- "To dawdle along": To move forward very slowly.
- The old car dawdled along the country road.
Variants and Related Words
- Dawdler (noun): A person who dawdles.
- He's such a dawdler; he's always the last to arrive.
- Dawdling (adjective or gerund):
- Her dawdling pace annoyed her faster friends. (adjective)
- His constant dawdling makes him inefficient. (gerund)
Synonyms
- Dally: To act or move slowly; to waste time.
- Linger: To stay in a place longer than necessary.
- Loiter: To stand or wait around idly.
- Procrastinate: To delay or postpone action.
Phrasal Verbs
- Dawdle away: To waste a period of time idly.
- She dawdled away the morning window-shopping.
Related Idioms
- "Dawdle one's time away": To waste time through slow, idle actions.
- He had no ambition and was content to dawdle his time away.
Verb
- hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc.
- waste time
- Get busy--don't dally!
- take one's time; proceed slowly