DANDLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dandle

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verb

Dandle v. t. (past & past part. dandled; pres. part. dandling)

To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, as an infant. "Ye shall be dandled... upon her knees."

To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet. "They have put me in a silk gown and gaudy fool's cap; I as ashamed to be dandled thus." "The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence."

To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle. (Obs.) "Captains do so dandle their doings, and dally in the service, as it they would not have the enemy subdued."

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Etymology of 'Dandle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dandle" Quotes from Famous Books

... an infantile frailty's a scandal; Let bygones be bygones, for somebody knows It was bliss such a Baby to dance and to dandle,— Your cheeks were so dimpled, so rosy ...

— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education

... part with me so, and began to play so many new Tricks at her Window, that it was impossible for me to forbear observing her. I verily believe she put her self to the Expence of a new Wax Baby on purpose to plague me; she us'd to dandle and play with this Figure as impertinently as if it had been a real Child: sometimes she would let fall a Glove or a Pin Cushion in the Street, and shut or open her Casement three or four times in a Minute. When I had almost wean'd my self from this, she came in her Shift-Sleeves, ...

— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

Words linked to "Dandle" : caress, displace, portmanteau word, move