dally Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb behave carelessly or indifferently
    flirt; toy; play.
    • Play about with a young girl's affection
  2. verb waste time
    dawdle.
    • Get busy--don't dally!
  3. verb talk or behave amorously, without serious intentions
    butterfly; coquet; coquette; mash; flirt; romance; philander; chat up.
    • The guys always try to chat up the new secretaries
    • My husband never flirts with other women
  4. verb consider not very seriously
    trifle; play.
    • He is trifling with her
    • She plays with the thought of moving to Tasmania

WordNet

Dal"ly intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. alien, dailien; cf. Icel. pylja to talk, G. dallen, dalen, dahlen, to trifle, talk nonsense, OSw. tule a droll or funny man; or AS. dol foolish, E. dull.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dallied ; present participle & verbal noun Dallying
Definitions
  1. To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle.
    We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer. Calamy.
    We have put off God, and dallied with his grace. Barrow.
  2. To interchange caresses, especially with one of the opposite sex; to use fondling; to wanton; to sport.
    Not dallying with a brace of courtesans. Shak.
    Our aerie . . . dallies with the wind. Shak.
Dal"ly transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To delay unnecessarily; to while away.
    Dallying off the time with often skirmishes. Knolles.

Webster 1913