dandle

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“
"My turn to dandle," he said, with a sly look at his aunt, and convulsed everyone Not me," said Mrs. Larkins, taking his point, "_thank you," and achieved a climax It was queer, but they seemed to be easy people to get on with anyhow.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb 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. transitive verb To pamper or pet.
  3. noun Narragansett Bay See seesaw. See Regional Note at teeter-totter.

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Examples (50)

  • Linz is a clean and decent place, where men are shiny and sober, women virginal and strapping - where old men dandle the kinder on their aged knees and recall those halcyon days of mass extermination, rape camps and other good clean fun … —  British Blogs
  • "My turn to dandle," he said, with a sly look at his aunt, and convulsed everyone Not me," said Mrs. Larkins, taking his point, "_thank you," and achieved a climax It was queer, but they seemed to be easy people to get on with anyhow. —  The History of Mr. Polly
  • For, as their nurses dandle them —  More Bab Ballads
  • It makes me laugh a little inwardly to see how they dandle their poetical babies, but I don't let them know it. —  Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works
  • [The LITTLE MAN shakes his head, and continues to dandle the —  Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Cf. Scots dandill, go about idly; Scots and English dial. dander, daunder, dauner (see dander), wander about, talk incoherently, etc. Cf. German tändeln, toy, trifle, play; Middle Dutch dantinnen, trifle (whence prob. F. dandiner, swing, waddle). These appear to be freq. verbs, from a base seen in Middle Dutch danten, do foolish things, trifle, Middle High German tant, German tand (later Danish tant), a trifle, toy, empty prattle. Cf. Old Italian dondolare, dondolare, dandle, play, dandola, dondola, a doll, a kind of ball-play; modern dondolare, swing, toss, loiter, dondolo, a swing, jest, sport; prob. of Teutonic origin.
 

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/ˈdændl/
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