dandle
/ˈdændəl/ verb, noun
Forms dandles dandling dandled
- verb (transitive) To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child.
- verb (transitive) To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To play with; to wheedle.
- noun (Rhode Island) A teeter-totter; a seesaw.
Synonyms
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, as an infant.
- verb 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. Addison.
Etymology [Cf. G. dändeln to trifly, dandle, OD. & Prov. G. danten, G. tand trifly, prattle; Scot. dandill, dander, to go about idly, to trifly.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dandle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details