dally

• IPA^(key): /ˈdæli/

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• Homophone: DALY
• Rhymes: -æli

From Middle English dalyen, from Anglo-Norman delaier. Doublet of delay.

dally (third-person singular simple present dallies, present participle dallying, simple past and past participle dallied)

1. To waste time in trivial activities, or in idleness; to trifle.

   Synonyms: dawdle, dilly-dally; see also Thesaurus:loiter

   • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     I wish, grave governor, 'twere in my power / To favour you; but 'tis my father's cause, / Wherein I may not, nay, I dare not dally.

   • a. 1692, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance:

     […] after we by our presumptuous delays have put off God, and dallied with his grace; […]

   • a. 1726, Benjamin Calamy, “A Sermon Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday”, in J. Calamy, editor, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions:

     […] we have trifled too long already about a matter of such infinite moment, it is perfect Madness to dally any longer. […]

2. (transitive, intransitive) To caress, especially of a sexual nature; to fondle or pet

   Synonyms: feel up, grope, touch up; see also Thesaurus:fondle

   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 191, column 2:

     Not dallying with a Brace of Curtizans,

3. To delay unnecessarily; to while away.

   Synonym: kill time

• dilly-dally

Possibly from Spanish dale la vuelta (“twist it around”) by law of Hobson-Jobson, from dale + la + vuelta.

dally (plural dallies)

1. Several wraps of rope around the saddle horn, used to stop animals in roping.
   • 1947, Bruce Kiskaddon, Rhymes and Ranches:

     What matters is now if he tied hard and fast, / Or tumbled his steer with a dally.

dally (third-person singular simple present dallies, present participle dallying, simple past and past participle dallied)

1. To wind the lasso rope (ie throw-rope) around the saddle horn (the saddle horn is attached to the pommel of a western style saddle) after the roping of an animal
   • 2003, Jameson Parker, An Accidental Cowboy, page 89:

     The end of the top rope he dallied around the gooseneck trailer hitch.

dally (plural dallies)

1. (India) Alternative form of dolly (“offering of fruit or flowers”)
   • 1872, J. Frederick Pogson, Indian Gardening, page 19:

     We have known Mazagon and long-pod Beans to be thrown out of a dally, because they were full of seed!

• d'y'all, y'all'd