dandle

English

Etymology

Compare Scots dandill (“to dander; go about idly; move uncertainly; trifle”), English dialectal dander (“to wander about; talk incoherently; rave”), Middle Dutch dantinnen (“to trifle”) (from French dandiner (“to swing; waddle”)), German dändeln, tändeln (“to trifle, dandle”), Middle Dutch and Provincial German danten (“to do foolish things; trifle”), German Tand (“trifle, prattle”).

Pronunciation

(UK, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdændəl/, [ˈdændəɫ]
Audio (UK) (file)

Verb

dandle (third-person singular simple present dandles, present participle dandling, simple past and past participle dandled)

(transitive) To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child.
- 1978, Bible, New International Version, Isaiah 66:12
  You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.
(transitive) To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet.
- 1711 August 1 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “SATURDAY, July 21, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 113; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:
  [T]hey have put me in a silk night-gown and gaudy fool's cap, and make me now and then stand in the window with it. I am ashamed to be dandled thus, and cannot look in the glass without blushing to see myself turned into such a pretty little master.
- 1807, Francis Jeffrey, "Forbe's Life of Dr. Beattie" in The Edinburgh Review April 1807
  The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence.
(transitive, obsolete) To play with; to wheedle.
- 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], OCLC 606546850; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, OCLC 22906028:
  captaines, who notwithstanding that they are specially imployed to make peace thorough strong execution of warre, yet they doe so dandle their doings, and dallie in the service to them committed

Synonyms

(to treat with fondness): see also Thesaurus:pamper or Thesaurus:fondle

Derived terms

dandle board
dandler

Translations

to move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play

Bulgarian: дундуркам (dundurkam)
French: dodeliner (fr), se trémousser (fr)
Greek: ταχταρίζω (el) (tachtarízo)
Hungarian: térden lovagoltat, ringat (hu)
Maori: rapoi

to treat with fondness, as if a child

Bulgarian: глезя (bg) (glezja), приласкавам (bg) (prilaskavam)
Maori: morimori
Polish: niańczyć

Anagrams

DeLand, landed