dawdling
Dragging your feet and wasting daylight.
Also called dawdlin', dawdle.
Updated September 21, 2026
dawdling pronunciation
/DAWD-lin/
Meaning
Moving slow on purpose, or at least acting like it. In country Southern talk you mostly hear it as a scolding: quit dawdlin' and get in the truck. Parents aim it at kids tying shoes for ten minutes. It sits beside piddlin' and lollygaggin' in the family hurry-up toolkit.
How folks use it
- “Quit dawdling and get your boots on before we miss the sale at the feed store.”
- “He was dawdling around the yard when he should've been stacking wood.”
Origin and etymology
Dawdle is older British English from the 1700s for wasting time. Settlers carried it into American English, and rural Southern households kept the g-dropped dawdlin' form alive as everyday Mama talk. Not invented in the South, but it still rings porch-and-kitchen true there.
Frequently asked questions
Is dawdling the same as moseying?
Close cousins. Mosey can sound easygoing. Dawdling usually means somebody thinks you need to hurry.