How to Use dawdle in a Sentence

dawdle

verb
  • Hurry up! There's no time to dawdle.
  • Come home immediately after school, and don't dawdle.
  • Pick a base and branch out or mix and match, but don’t dawdle.
    David Swanson, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2021
  • The team couldn’t dawdle because the dolphins might not stay long.
    Jill Langlois, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Make a beeline for your car after the performance to get a jump start on the crowd, or plan to dawdle a bit.
    Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 3 July 2019
  • Look who’s back in town, ready to stop dawdling between pitches and get on with the business of playing at a crisp pace.
    Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Mar. 2023
  • If the last launch was any indication, it's bound to be gone in no time, so don't dawdle.
    Kaleigh Fasanella, Allure, 15 Jan. 2020
  • Melania can dawdle in New York waiting for her son to finish the school year.
    Caitlin Flanagan, The Cut, 14 May 2017
  • All part of the less-is-more ethos that has, over the past few seasons, elbowed maximalism out of the way like a dawdling tourist.
    Véronique Hyland, ELLE, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Then one player went the wrong way coming out of the huddle, while a teammate dawdled.
    Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Sep. 2023
  • We are rushed through the establishment of this world, only to dawdle as time goes by.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 23 Dec. 2021
  • The referees blew the play dead and stood nearby, dawdling like a pair of plainclothes detectives at a crime scene.
    Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
  • But don’t dawdle: The vendors pack up in the early afternoon.
    Kate Maxwell, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Jan. 2022
  • Through the haze of scheming and months of posturing, dawdling and resistance, what has emerged is a snapshot of how the owners align.
    Ken Belson, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2016
  • But in the capital, Friday seemed to dawdle a bit in demonstrating the season’s sparkling essence.
    Martin Weil, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2023
  • Don’t dawdle, though, because places are expected to book up fast.
    Susan Dunne, courant.com, 28 Mar. 2022
  • There is no reason for owner Michael Bidwill to dawdle.
    Kent Somers, The Arizona Republic, 8 Jan. 2023
  • Don’t dawdle too much, though, because these two orbs won’t have a conjunction this great again until 2080.
    Nicole Clausing, Sunset Magazine, 20 Dec. 2020
  • The absence of any overriding vision tells in the novel’s dawdling middle sections.
    Sam Sacks, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Haley, again, dawdling, eyes downcast, face leaden with despair, emerged.
    Benjamin Hale, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
  • Faster pit stops could also help unlock sales for electric two-wheelers, which have been slow to catch on due to dawdling charge times and limited riding range.
    IEEE Spectrum, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Instead, in the last year, the Trump administration withdrew two drug pricing proposals, dawdled on a third, and lost in court on a fourth.
    Nicholas Florko, STAT, 20 Dec. 2019
  • As a child, Costa would dawdle in the deep gutters lining the streets near her home, the cool, mucky water providing her momentary pain relief.
    Erika Hayasaki, WIRED, 18 Apr. 2017
  • On an early evening walk, my dogs dawdle over an interesting scent, noses to the ground, making snuffling noises.
    Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 8 Nov. 2016
  • Zeta may dawdle in the western Caribbean for another day or so, trapped between two strong high pressure systems to the east and west.
    NBC News, 25 Oct. 2020
  • McIlroy, who noted that the precise timing of a swing can be the difference between a ball rocketing 20 yards to the left or 20 yards to the right, has hardly dawdled on his pursuit of a fix.
    Alan Blinder, New York Times, 16 May 2023
  • Already, it's become a new sign of the times in baseball — an umpire pointing to his wrist, indicating a pitcher dawdled too long.
    Alanis Thames, ajc, 4 Mar. 2023
  • In 2015 this was extended to three years, but the authorities in Shijiazhuang still dawdled.
    The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Admitting that and taking a break for a fun activity might actually waste less of your time than dawdling.
    Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Libra September 23-October 22 There are people to see and things to do, Libra, so don't dawdle!
    Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 12 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dawdle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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