Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To move (a small child) up and down on the knees or in the arms in a playful way: "Somebody who was dandled on Queen Victoria's knee must appear an old fogy” ( Edward, Duke of Windsor).
  2. v. To pamper or pet.
  3. n. Narragansett Bay See seesaw. See Regional Note at teeter-totter.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To shake or move up and down in the arms or on the knee, as a nurse tosses or trots an infant; amuse by play.
  2. Hence To fondle or make much of; treat as a child; pet; amuse.
  3. To play or trifle with; put off with cajolery or trifling excuses; wheedle; cajole.
  4. To defer or protract by trifles.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To move up and down on one’s knee or in one’s arms, in affectionate play, as an infant.
  2. v. To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet.
  3. v. To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, as an infant.
  2. v. To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet.
  3. v. To play with; to put off or delay by trifles; to wheedle.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. move (a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knees
  2. v. pet.

Etymologies

  1. Origin unknown.

Examples

  • “There was much happiness—Arthur now had a plump baby daughter, Mary, to dandle on his knee—and, thanks to Sherlock Holmes, the wherewithal to do a “proper” Christmas, with all the trimmings.”

    Simon & Schuster: Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man’s Smile

  • “(Mother pandas constantly dandle their infants for the same reason.)”

    Among the Pandas

  • “She was going to dandle her grandkids on her knees, and they live in far-away Allentown.”

    We Can Fix It

  • “A lot of the rest of the time in MN was peaceful and lovely for it -- hanging round with S or J to help dandle Nathan, or to go to the comics shop very good shop too - it's called Big Brain, which is a bit too similar to Detroit's Green Brain comics for comfort -- are there a bunch of brain-named shops out there or something?”

    Saint Paul A Go Go

  • “Ah, Robot Helena, your body will never be a living thing, you will never be anyone's lover, never anyone's mother; those perfect hands of yours will never dandle a newborn babe and you'll never see your beauty in the face of your own children ....”

    R.U.R.

  • “You were a rosy and chubby little maid when I used to dandle you on my knee in old England.”

    The Moon of Skulls

  • “I'm lonely, living without seeing my only close relative for years at a time — an exaggeration, he'd never been gone above eight months — and I want grandchildren before I'm too old to dandle them on my knee.”

    Hero Come Back

  • “Nafus leans over and transfers it onto my hand, as though I had asked to dandle it.”

    Simon & Schuster: The Song of The Dodo

  • “He would dandle the child upon his knee, arranging her black hair, tickling her ears, gazing intently into her brown eyes as if this alone was any way to speak, her every smile filling his heart with sorrow because when she was old she would lose her innocence and know that tragedy wastes the muscles of the face until a smile becomes impossible.”

    Captain Corelli's Mandolin

  • “Weighed down with business cares, for ever anxious for the increase of his property, bilious, sharp and impatient, he gave money unsparingly for the teachers, tutors, dress and other necessities of his children; but he could not endure, as he expressed it, “to be dandling his squallers,” and indeed had no time to dandle them.”

    A House of Gentlefolk

Show 10 more examples...

Related Words

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘dandle’.

More lists containing ‘dandle’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • yarb They had not the slightest suspicion of the trick; and were eternally dandling me till I was seven years old.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 5 Sep 11, 2008

‘dandle’ has been looked up 1153 times, added to 26 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 8.