dandle
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dandle
- /ˈdændəl/ US, UK
- [ˈdændəɫ] US, UK
Rhymes with -ændəl
Where it comes from
Compare Scots dandill (“to dander; go about idly; move uncertainly; trifle”), English dialectal dander (“to wander about; talk incoherently; rave”), Middle Dutch dantinnen (“to trifle”) (from French dandiner (“to swing; waddle”)), German dändeln, tändeln (“to trifle, dandle”), Middle Dutch and Provincial German danten (“to do foolish things; trifle”), German Tand (“trifle, prattle”).
verb dandles · dandling · dandled
- To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child. the young mother sat [the infant] upright in her lap, and[…]dandled it with a gloomy indifference.
- To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet. [T]hey have put me in a silk night-gown and gaudy fool's cap, and make me now and then stand in the window with it. I am ashamed to be dandled thus, and cannot look in the glass without blushing to see myself turned into such a pretty little master.
- To play with; to wheedle. captaines, who notwithstanding that they are specially imployed to make peace thorough strong execution of warre, yet they doe so dandle their doings, and dallie in the service to them committed
Similar: fondle
noun dandles
- A teeter-totter; a seesaw.
