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# dawdle

«dawdle» in Mova's school dictionary: **to walk or do something too slowly, wasting time** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (dawdle, dawdles, dawdled, dawdling)

### meaning for a pupil

To dawdle is to walk or do something too slowly, wasting time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

Common in parents' and teachers' talk («Don't dawdle!»), school mornings, stories.

### examples

- Don't dawdle, we'll miss the bus! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x1)
- He dawdled on his way to school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x2)
- Stop dawdling and finish your breakfast. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x3)
- She dawdled behind, looking at shop windows. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x4)
- The tortoise didn't dawdle; it kept going. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x5)
- If you dawdle in the shop, the ice cream will melt. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x6)
- I know when I may dawdle and when I may not." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/#x7)

### note

Informal. Person: dawdler. Similar: dilly-dally, loiter.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dawdle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dawdle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.