dally

verb dal·ly \ ˈda-lē \

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: dally in a Sentence

Editor's Note: The Evolution of dally

Definition of dally

dallied; dallying

intransitive verb

1 a : to act playfully; especially : to play amorously

b : to deal lightly : toy

accused him of dallying with a serious problem

2 a : to waste time

b : linger, dawdle

—

dallier

noun

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Examples of dally in a Sentence

Please don't dally. We need you here right away.
The two of us dallied over our coffee that morning.

Recent Examples of dally from the Web

The other, dallying behind the main group, has had a less productive evening.

— rory smith, New York Times, "Martin Odegaard’s Second Act on a Smaller Stage," 1 Feb. 2018
New resident Adrienne is a former movie actress who has no problem dallying with the romantic feelings both men have for her.

— elizabeth marie himchak, Pomerado News, "REVIEW: PowPAC play uses humor to address life changes," 28 Mar. 2018
Clement Lenglet struck back almost immediately for Sevilla, but with the hosts pushing for an equaliser, Tello pounced on defensive dilly-dallying in the fifth minute of stoppage time to seal the win.

— afp, chicagotribune.com, "La Liga Recap: Costa scores, sees red in Atletico win over Getafe," 6 Jan. 2018
There’s still plenty of time, but try not to dally too much.

— shari rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, "What Australia's bad flu season might mean for us and other flu facts you need to know," 26 Oct. 2017
There’s still plenty of time, but try not to dally too much.

— shari rudavsky, USA TODAY, "What Australia's bad flu season might mean for us and other flu facts you need to know," 26 Oct. 2017
Redford dilly-dallied with jobs in Milwaukee and improving his land and planting subsistence crops, but his aim was to plant more and more wheat, which could be a money crop.

— fred keller, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Farming was significant in development of Lisbon, Menomonee and Germantown," 25 Aug. 2017
The second gallery groups together stars, like Mr. Salle, with others, including Joyce Pensato, overlooked until recently, who dallied in the images of popular culture, pulling its meanings in provocative directions.

— roberta smith, New York Times, "Painting From the 1980s, When Brash Met Flash," 9 Feb. 2017
In golf news that doesn’t involve the British Open ... Cameron Champ hasn’t dilly-dallied since his breakout performance at last month’s U.S. Open.

— steve pajak, sacbee, "What’s next for Champ after breakout U.S. Open? Amateur’s drive up rankings continues," 18 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dally.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Evolution of dally

English speakers have been playing with different uses of dally since the 14th century. They first started using the word with the meaning "to chat," which was also the meaning of the Anglo-French word from which it was derived, but that meaning fell into disuse by the end of the 15th century. Next, dalliers were amusing themselves by acting playfully with each other especially in amorous and flirtatious ways. Apparently, some dalliers were also a bit derisive, leading dally to mean "to deal with lightly or in a way that is not serious." It didn't take long for the fuddy-duddies to criticize all this play as a waste of time. By the mid-16th century, dally was weighted down with its "to waste time" and "dawdle" meanings, which, in time, gave way to the word dillydally, a humorous reduplication of dally.

Origin and Etymology of dally

Middle English dalyen, from Anglo-French dalier

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

dally Synonyms

Phrases

drag one's feet (also drag one's heels), drop behind, fall behind, hang fire, mark time, take one's time;

Synonym Discussion of dally

trifle, toy, dally, flirt, coquet mean to deal with or act toward without serious purpose. trifle may imply playfulness, unconcern, indulgent contempt.

- to trifle with a lover's feelings

toy implies acting without full attention or serious exertion of one's powers.

- a political novice toying with great issues

dally suggests indulging in thoughts or plans merely as an amusement.

- dallying with the idea of building a boat someday

flirt implies an interest or attention that soon passes to another object.

- flirted with one fashionable ism after another

coquet implies attracting interest or admiration without serious intention.

- companies that coquet with environmentalism solely for public relations

delay, procrastinate, lag, loiter, dawdle, dally mean to move or act slowly so as to fall behind. delay usually implies a putting off of something (such as a beginning or departure).