DALLY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dally

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/dˈæli/ Listen

verb

Dally v. t. To delay unnecessarily; to while away. "Dallying off the time with often skirmishes."

Dally v. i. (past & past part. dallied; pres. part. dallying)

To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. "We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer." "We have put off God, and dallied with his grace."

To interchange caresses, especially with one of the opposite sex; to use fondling; to wanton; to sport. "Not dallying with a brace of courtesans." "Our aerie... dallies with the wind."

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Etymology of 'Dally'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dally" Quotes from Famous Books

... you'll always remember to stand inside of that circle, when you take 'em off and put 'em on, there won't be any more trouble. And take 'em off as soon as you shut the doors. If you dilly-dally a minute—" ...

— The Garden of the Plynck • Karle Wilson Baker

... ye play, then, will ye dally, with your music and your wine? Up! it is Jehovah's rally; God's own arm hath need of thine; Hark! the onset! will ye fold your faith-clad arms in lazy lock? Up! O up, thou drowsy soldier! Worlds are charging to ...

— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various

... condoningly, answering an accusing thought. "She has been a little spoiled, naturally. She has seen life only from the side that amuses and entertains. Some day, when she realizes, as it comes to us all to do, that care and sorrow bring their own sustaining power, she will not dally among the petty things of life; the wilful waywardness will turn ...

— Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley • Belle K. Maniates

... not dally with old Mr. Taylor here—for us he was only Mrs. Taylor's husband, a kind of useful marital appendendum. He was a merchant on 'Change, with interests in argosies that plied to Tripoli—successful, busy, absorbed, ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers • Elbert Hubbard

... "Why did ye dally with him, Ken?" she demanded, fiercely; "don't ye know thet whilst ye lets him live yere jest handlin' an' playin' with ...

— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck

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