1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

dallies

verb

present tense third-person singular of dally
1
as in plays
to engage in activity for amusement he spent his college years dallying, seemingly determined to acquire as little knowledge as possible

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in lingers
to move or act slowly don't dally on the way to the interview

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in flirts
to show a sexual attraction for someone just for fun she spent the summer dallying with a guy renting the neighboring beach house

Synonyms & Similar Words
4
as in lazes
to spend time doing nothing I kept dallying at my desk until I couldn't put off doing my work any longer

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dallies
  1. plays
  2. lingers
  3. flirts
  4. dawdles
  5. drags
  6. idles
  7. delays
  8. rests
Verb
  • There is no doubt the quality of players that managers have available plays a massive part in how expressive their style becomes but as ideas go, Luis Enrique’s use of his wide players last season definitely set PSG apart.
    — Art de Roché, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Propulsion capacity grows The PAC-3 MSE’s propulsion system plays a critical role during an engagement.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 9 Sep. 2026
Definition of plays
Verb
  • The camera still lingers, the music still aches, but the urgency is gone.
    — Henry Metz, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2026
  • The shock of that day, and its impact across the globe, lingers a quarter of a century later.
    — Leonie Kidd, CNBC, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of lingers
Verb
  • Hal flirts with Kerry; John has an affair with Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan), the wife of William Macon (Garret Dillahunt), a local cattle mogul whose compound has more high tech weaponry than a mere human would seem to need.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 14 Aug. 2026
  • Rachel dates a shoe store operator named Lou (Bob Hoskins), while Charlotte nurses a crush on her handsome young school bus driver and flirts with Catholicism to the chagrin of her Jewish mother.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 17 July 2026
Definition of flirts
Verb
  • But Koreeda dawdles over all that without ever finding much dramatic nuance, making for a dullish midsection.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026
  • But while the new movie dawdles on its way to Toxie’s origins, then rushes toward a finale with a lurching rhythm that verges on calculated ineptitude, its spirit never feels inauthentic.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 29 Aug. 2025
Definition of dawdles
Verb
  • M’Benga drags him into a private room to discuss the situation, and whether or not Reeger is driven by revenge, not reason.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2026
  • New York — The Iran war has saddled Americans with a massive energy bill that continues to mount as the conflict drags on.
    — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of drags
Verb
  • As your car idles, warm air blown from the top of your dashboard will melt the ice on the outside of the windshield.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 27 Dec. 2025
  • Security camera footage shows a black vehicle park in front of Café Bernardo, a restaurant, and idles for about two minutes.
    — Madisen Keavy, CBS News, 17 Dec. 2025
Definition of idles
Verb
  • Tennis has always been highly dependent on the weather; unlike in soccer or football, rain cancels or delays a match until the court is dry enough to be playable.
    — Aaron Short, Curbed, 3 Sep. 2026
  • But a provision that delays for one month a federal ban on intoxicating hemp THC products has prompted criticism from many GOP lawmakers.
    — Kevin Freking, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of delays
Verb
  • This is a steep premium over an ordinary 13- or 14-inch portable LCD, so the value case rests entirely on the ePaper experience rather than gaming or video.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and the American Psychological Association in a 2004 review, concluded that the polygraph rests more on theater than fact.
    — Brian O'Neill, The Conversation, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of rests
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

dalliers
dallies
dally
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Dallies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dallies. Accessed 17 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of watershed

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
funny guinea pig in glasses reading a book
Challenging Words You Should Know Vol 2 Words to the wise
See All