1
as in to delay
to move or act slowly
if you continue to dawdle, we'll be late for sure
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to lazy
to spend time doing nothing
accused the city council of dawdling even as the crime rate was spiraling out of control
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of dawdle
Past Republican presidents were content to dawdle on tax cuts and entitlement reform, but Trump, understanding that the values of America are communicated through its art and entertainment, has instead sought to impose his fairly common and generally decent tastes on popular culture.
—
Peter Tonguette, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 14 Mar. 2025
Players dawdled on the ball in key moments, hesitant to make mistakes.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
Skelly secured the Obama Administration’s commitment to buy his energy, but in the course of a decade the project slowly collapsed, as state powers dawdled and eventually refused to issue the necessary permits.
—Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
Before building a vacuum train tube from L.A. to San Francisco, proponents must succeed with an 8-kilometer test track
Philip E. Ross
18 Dec 2015
8 min read
The Straight Road: Only when dawdling in the city can Hyperloop capsules handle more than a gentle curve.
—IEEE Spectrum, 18 Dec. 2015
See All Example Sentences for dawdle
Peter Tonguette, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 14 Mar. 2025
Players dawdled on the ball in key moments, hesitant to make mistakes.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
Skelly secured the Obama Administration’s commitment to buy his energy, but in the course of a decade the project slowly collapsed, as state powers dawdled and eventually refused to issue the necessary permits.
—Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
Before building a vacuum train tube from L.A. to San Francisco, proponents must succeed with an 8-kilometer test track
Philip E. Ross
18 Dec 2015
8 min read
The Straight Road: Only when dawdling in the city can Hyperloop capsules handle more than a gentle curve.
—IEEE Spectrum, 18 Dec. 2015
See All Example Sentences for dawdle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dawdle
Verb
-
Apple looks to have delayed the release of the new macOS hardware into 2026.—
Ewan Spence,
Forbes.com,
13 July 2025
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The flight has since been delayed and is now expected to depart from Sydney at 7:25 a.m.—
Brenton Blanchet,
People.com,
12 July 2025
Verb
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But there are still lingering worries about how long Amazon and Apple will keep movies in theaters before sending them to streaming.—
Pamela McClintock,
HollywoodReporter,
9 July 2025
-
This slight chance of thunderstorms lingers into Wednesday as the upper low passes over the region.—
CA WILDFIRE BOT,
Sacbee.com,
9 July 2025
Verb
-
Iris Delgado, 33, has strolled the Home Depot parking lot nearly every day with a cart of water bottles for day laborers and a cellphone to occasionally livestream.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
11 July 2025
-
In other words, curiosity seekers can stroll by the Littrells’ house with their feet in the water, but can’t stop to hang out and grab some rays.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
9 July 2025
Verb
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In particular, website owners and SEO experts wanted to know how Cloudflare planned to block Google's bot from scraping sites to fuel AI overviews without risking blocking the same bot from crawling for valuable search engine placements.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
9 July 2025
-
Both are unable, under any circumstances, to resist crawling under someone doing a downward-facing dog.—
Erika Sjule,
New Yorker,
8 July 2025
Verb
-
Anyone who filmed the idling trucks could claim a portion of the money collected through the fine.—
Clare Sestanovich,
New Yorker,
13 July 2025
-
The clothing description of the suspect that Romero provided his fellow officers didn’t match a description provided by a witness who spotted the shooter open fire, then run into an idling car that sped him away from the shooting scene, according to Fletcher.—
City News Service,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 July 2025
Verb
-
The plucky little superdog drags Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, where he is treated by a posse of robots.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
11 July 2025
-
That’s good for everyone, even expat journalists dragging their kids along to cover a new story.—
Matthew Martin,
semafor.com,
11 July 2025
Verb
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The researchers observed that this particular population of orangutans also build slightly simpler nests for daytime naps, in contrast to other groups which frequently just laze on bare branches.—
Lauren Leffer,
Popular Science,
25 June 2025
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The 576-square-foot gem is perfect for wading, doing morning laps, or just lazing alongside with a good book.—
Matthew Monagan,
Travel + Leisure,
3 June 2025
Verb
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The hard foul came after Sheldon poked Clark in the eye in the third quarter.—
Jackson Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
13 July 2025
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The couple began dating in 2023 and frequently poke fun at each other on their social media pages.—
Caroline Blair,
People.com,
11 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dawdle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dawdle. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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