dawdled
past simple and past participle ofdawdle
dawdle
verb[I]
uk/ˈdɔː.dəl/us/ˈdɑː.dəl/to do something or gosomewhereveryslowly, taking moretimethan isnecessary:
Stop dawdling! You'll be late forschool!
to move slowly
- crawlThere'd been a bad accident on the motorway and traffic was crawling.
- trundleLorries trundle through the narrow lanes.
- creepHe crept downstairs, hardly making any noise.
- trudgeThey trudged wearily through the snow.
- strollWe spent the afternoon strolling around Budapest.
- ambleHe ambled over to the window.
Slow and moving slowly
- (as) slow as molassesidiom
- at a snail's paceidiom
- by and byidiom
- by degreesidiom
- clawyourway(somewhere)idiom
- float
- inch by inchidiom
- infiltrate
- infiltration
- jog
- labour
- lag
- laggard
- sluggishly
- sluggishness
- snail
- steadily
- steadiness
- struggle
- wander
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Delaying and wasting time
Examplesofdawdled
dawdled
In English, many past and present participles of verbs can be used as adjectives. Some of these examples may show the adjective use.
I do not know why itdawdledon for a year or eighteen months.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
He never concealed it; he has been perfectly straightforward—and wedawdledfor weeks.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
It is only that we havedawdledat it, cluttering it up with compromises, with red tape, with delays amounting to weeks.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
We havedawdledfar too long in the development of the railways.
FromEuroparl Parallel Corpus - English
It hasdawdleda very long time.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under theOpen Parliament Licence v3.0
The chameleon was slow anddawdled, taking time to eat and sleep.
From
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
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