Dally
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dally¹
- /ˈdæli/
Sounds like DALY · Rhymes with -æli
Where it comes from
From Middle English dalien, from Anglo-Norman delaier. Doublet of delay.
verb dallies · dallying · dallied
- To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle. I wish, grave governor, 'twere in my power / To favour you; but 'tis my father's cause, / Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally.
- To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet Not dallying with a Brace of Curtizans, / But meditating with two deepe Diuines:
- To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
dally²
- /ˈdæli/
Sounds like DALY · Rhymes with -æli
Where it comes from
Possibly from Spanish dale vuelta (“twist it around”) by law of Hobson-Jobson, from dale + la + vuelta.
noun dallies
- Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping. What matters is now if he tied hard and fast, / Or tumbled his steer with a dally.
verb dallies · dallying · dallied
- To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal The end of the top rope he dallied around the gooseneck trailer hitch.
dally³
- /ˈdæli/
Sounds like DALY · Rhymes with -æli
noun dallies
- Alternative form of dolly (“offering of fruit or flowers”).dolly We have known Mazagon and long-pod Beans to be thrown out of a dally, because they were full of seed!
Dally⁴
proper noun Dallys
- A surname.
Dally⁵
Where it comes from
Contraction of "Dalmatian Coast", from where many Croatian emigrants originated. Also spelt "Dallie"
noun Dallies
- A New Zealand person of Croatian or other Balkan descent. The New Zealand wine industry and those who consume the wine it produces owe a huge debt of gratitude to the "Dallies" – the Croatians, and others from that part of eastern Europe who came here in the early 1900s and brought with them a passion for growing, making and drinking wine.
